First of all, congratulations on your web3 journey. I am delighted to be the one to show you how to mint your first NFT!
[If you need a simple NFT explainer, check out the NFT guide I wrote here]
Visit the MetaMask download page, and download MetaMask. MetaMask is basically a tool that allows you interact with the Ethereum blockchain without bothering about the technical details. Complete your setup, and store your secret (12-word) seed phrase, and never share with anyone (not even with your therapist!)
<aside> 💡 Note: if you’re on a mobile device, after downloading MetaMask you have to use the MetaMask browser to access https://katalog.vercel.app. To do this, open the app, hit the hamburger menu (the three horizontal lines in the top right, and select ‘browser). At the top of the app, you’ll see ‘Ethereum Mainnet’. Switch over to the Rinkeby Testnet, then go to the katalog website.
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💡 When you set up your MetaMask, you get something called a wallet address. Mine, for example, is 0x53Eed988808B5639f0fc0dDc2426CD84f6CB994A. It's also called a Public Key. This is how programs and contracts on the blockchain identify you. Think of it as a very long username.
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When you're done with this step, we can continue!
Here's a screenshot of my MetaMask on Chrome. You can see at the very top that we have a dropdown that says 'Ethereum Mainnet'.
Hit that dropdown and select Rinkeby Test Network which is where the Smart Contract for this app is located.
<aside> 💡 'Mainnet' is fancy speak for saying this is the 'real' Ethereum network, which means that you'll have to pay real money in exchange for real Ether (which is the currency of the Ethereum ecosystem).
Because this is a beginner introduction to minting on Ethereum, I have created this app on one of several Ethereum 'testnets' (you can probably tell that it's a 'test' version of Ethereum. You don't have to worry about real money - this is the 'staging' area of the Ethereum network).
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To mint a Cool Cat, you need gas. Gas is just a fancy term for tiny amounts of Ether you'll have to pay for the Ethereum Virtual Machine to mint you a cat
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Think of the Ethereum Virtual Machine as a computer that anyone can use - for a fee. Some people call it the ‘world computer’ - which I think is very cool. We pay gas fees, tiny fractions of Ether, which is an estimate of how much work the computer will do. It’s free to request data from Ethereum Virtual Machine (just like it’s free to ask for your account balance from a bank), but transactions - like minting the NFT we’re about to mint - well, that’s gonna cost.
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