How to Bypass Kucoin while Trading BCH for WAX, or Vice-Versa
May 22, 2021 was a big day for those in the WAX universe. R-Planet was having a sale of their mini and mega packs, allowing people to obtain hundreds & even thousands of dollars worth of NFT's for a fraction of the price. But something else happened that day.
Kucoin showed their true colors.
This is speculation on my part, but it makes total sense to me. In anticipation of R-Planet's pack sale, Kucoin initiated a planned, unannounced freeze on WAX deposit credits. They allowed deposits, but they just stopped crediting them to accounts. I speculate that, due to the volatility of WAX created by the R-Planet sale, Kucoin took advantage of this by using the influx of WAX deposits as leverage before its price would drop back down after the sale. Once the price dipped back down to what it was before the R-Planet pack sale, roughly ten hours later, Kucoin finally started crediting WAX deposits. https://www.reddit.com/r/kucoin/comments/niom78/waxp_deposit_has_not_been_credited_for_almost_an/
As an added bonus to themselves, on the same date that they withheld WAX deposits for 10 hours, Kucoin TRIPLED their withdraw fee for WAX from 10 WAX to 30 WAX. It wasn't bad enough that they held their customers' WAX hostage. They decided to up the ransom.
I haven't used Kucoin since. I hope to never have to deal with them again. Bitcoin Cash is my cryptocurrency of choice, but I use WAX as a necessity to generate income. Given this, I made it my mission to find a way to trade the two currencies for each other while also leaving Kucoin in the dust. I have discovered such a method and now I feel it is my duty to share it with you, so YOU don't fall victim to Kucoin's thievery.
**Step 1**: Download the Metamask Chrome Extension. I use this extension on Brave Browser without issue. There are also iOS and Android versions of Metamask available. I don't have experience with the iOS version, but I do use the Android version without any trouble. It has its own built-in web browser so it is compatible with any site that would normally need to be compatible with the browser extension. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/metamask/nkbihfbeogaeaoehlefnkodbefgpgknn?hl=en https://metamask.io/download
**Step 2**: Add the Binance Smart Chain Network to your Metamask. Make sure your Metamask opens to the Binance Smart Chain and not the Ethereum Network. https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/connecting-metamask-to-binance-smart-chain
**Step 3**: Obtain BSC BNB (BEP-20). It is important that you obtain BNB on the BSC network, and not the Binance Chain (which is essentially an ETH token). Do take note that you can NOT obtain BEP-20 BNB on Binance dot US. This means that if you're in an oppressive nation like the United States, North Korea, Iran, or Cuba, you won't be able to legally obtain BEP-20 BNB. If one were to use a VPN, such as the free version of Proton VPN, and connect to the **Netherlands**, they might be able to get around this. I do not condone doing anything illegal in your country. https://academy.binance.com/en/glossary/bep-20 https://protonvpn.com/
At first I thought that Binance dot COM was the only way to obtain BEP-20 BNB. I learned the hard way that for certain individuals, they require you to withdraw a minimum of $60 worth of BEP-20 BNB to obtain it from their exchange. This didn't fly with me. Thankfully I discovered that the amazing, beautiful DeFi AI Sideshift has BEP-20 BNB listed. So instead of going the Binance route, I HIGHLY recommend you simply shift your BCH to BEP-20 BNB using Sideshift. https://sideshift.ai
If your mission is to swap WAX to BCH, then I only recommend getting enough BEP-20 BNB to pay for gas fees. I would recommend giving yourself a $5-$10 cushion, but you could get away with less. Just keep in mind that gas fees, like ETH gas fees, change frequently. Thankfully we're talking about $0.30 to $2.00 and not $25 to $90. However if your mission is to swap BCH to WAX, I recommend shifting all of the BCH you're trying to trade to BEP-20 BNB. I would also recommend paying attention to the values of BNB and Alien Worlds Trilium (TLM), and making sure you get enough BEP-20 BNB to obtain at least 100 TLM with it.
**Now that Steps 1-3 are complete, we have come to a fork. I will first explain how to obtain WAX, and then afterwards I will explain how to obtain BCH. They will basically be the reverse process of each other.**
HOW TO OBTAIN WAX:
**Step 1**: Obtain Alien Worlds Trilium (TLM). IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE YOU OBTAIN AT LEAST 100 TLM! Yes, you read that correct. The process includes an in-game currency that just so happens to also be a cryptocurrency. I won't go into the details of Alien Worlds here, but I will say that TLM is the currency used in the game Alien Worlds. You can obtain it either through Binance dot COM, which I don't really recommend, or you can use the popular DeFi PancakeSwap. I highly recommend the latter because the fees are substantially lower. Keep in mind that the version of TLM you obtain in this step will still be on the Binance Smart Chain. https://pancakeswap.finance
**Step 2**: Convert your BSC TLM to WAX TLM. In order to trade your TLM for WAX, you will need to first bridge it from BSC to the WAX chain. Thankfully, the team at Alien Worlds has made this easy with their teleport feature. Keep in mind that you must teleport at least 100 TLM at a time. You will need to connect both your Metamask (and ensure it connects to BSC and NOT ETH) and your WAX wallet. Then you input the TLM you'd like to convert to WAX, press the appropriate button, and then watch the Dashboard. Depending on various conditions, it can take some time, but personally I haven't had to wait more than five minutes for a teleport to go through. I've even had a teleport go through in less than a minute. If you want to be absolutely sure, you can always ask the friendly staff at the Alien Worlds Telegram if there are any current issues with their teleport feature. https://teleport.alienworlds.io/ https://t.me/AlienWorldsOffical
**Step 3**: Trade your TLM for WAX! The exchange of choice to perform this trade is Alcor Exchange. Unlike most exchanges, the fees are very low and they don't hold your crypto hostage with withdraw fees. It works essentially like a DeFi, but with Spot Trading if you wish to go that route. Congratulations! You have successfully converted BCH to WAX without having to go near Kucoin! https://wax.alcor.exchange
HOW TO OBTAIN BCH:
**Step 1**: Trade your WAX for Alien Worlds Trilium (TLM). IMPORTANT: MAKE SURE YOU OBTAIN AT LEAST 100 TLM! You can do this easily on the Alcor Exchange. https://wax.alcor.exchange
**Step 2**: Teleport your TLM to the Binance Smart Chain. Keep in mind that you have to teleport at least 100 TLM at a time. This can be done using Alien Worlds' teleport feature. If you're worried about whether or not there are any current issues with the teleport feature, you can always ask the helpful staff in the Alien Worlds Telegram. https://teleport.alienworlds.io/ https://t.me/AlienWorldsOffical
**Step 3**: Trade your TLM for BEP-20 BNB. You can do this at Binance dot COM, but I recommend using PancakeSwap instead. Keep in mind that Binance does deal in BCH as well so you can manage to skip the next step if you use Binance. https://pancakeswap.finance
**Step 4**: Shift your BEP-20 BNB to BCH using Sideshift. It's that simple! https://sideshift.ai
I hope you found this tutorial to be helpful. Fight the powers that be!
Michael Jackson, Elvis, Prince, and Tupac Shakur will Return to Earth via UFO to Spread DOGE
Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, Prince, and Tupac Shakur will Return to Earth via UFO to Spread DOGEcoin, predicts crypto-enthusiast and professional onanist Dana Alcala
UFO header image credited to Peter Lomas at Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/users/peter-lomas-5966639/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3105954
Fear.
Uncertainty.
Doubt.
FUD is everywhere. It's so prevalent that we can almost breathe it in. However it takes a keen sense of smell to detect its foul stench. It hits the best of us. You could be going about your day and suddenly a news article rears its head, telling you that crypto is bad. It's evil. It's destroying the planet that you live on. Crypto will be the end-of-days! Or maybe a prominent, rich, white man who is admired by rich, white men the world-over sends out a tweet saying that he had no clue until now that, while he was accumulating a hoard of BTC Core, there was an environmental impact caused by its existence.
Don't listen to the FUD. Crypto is the future. Crypto is now.
This is money now. Deal with it.
It is true that crypto currency has an environmental impact. It is also true that the internet has an environmental impact. Everything we do as human beings has an environmental impact. But we don't stop using the internet, do we? We don't regress into a pre-Industrial Revolution lifestyle in the interest of saving the planet. No! We progress at all costs!
Well, maybe we should change that a little bit. The "...all costs" bit is catching up with us. It's long overdue that we adopt alternatives to fossil fuels. It's not impossible. Yes, it will cost us a boat load of money. But what will the costs be if we don't? Because humans aren't going anywhere... until we don't have a choice in the matter.
If you're wondering about the absurdity of this article's headline, it's a parody of an article that my friend sent to me this morning. He had 'heard somewhere' that DOGE was no longer mineable. I said, "Link or it didn't happen." This is the link he sent me: Dogecoin will migrate from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake to make it viable, predicts head of crypto lending platform. Obviously he had initially read the headline wrong, and I poked fun at him a bit about it. But it's also my point. Whether or not we're reading the headlines correctly, FUD is being spread everywhere. Instead of spreading our legs and buttholes for Elon Musk's next tweet, we need to think critically, and as always, DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/dogecoin-will-migrate-to-proof-of-work-from-proof-of-stake-to-make-it-viable-predicts-head-of-crypto-lending-platform-11621015119
If you've been waiting for your "Sometime in March" Banano airdrop, it isn't coming.
If you're like me, Bitcoin Cash isn't all there is in the crypto world. Also if you're like me, you're super poor, and when you hear about a crypto airdrop from a reputable, friendly community, you get excited!
Early this year, the Banano team announced an airdrop for HODLers of Nano coin. The only requirement was that you remove your Nano from exchanges and HODL it in your wallet (most likely Natrium). There was also a bonus feature if you chose a representative that had less than 1% voting power, they would boost your airdrop.
The team had originally announced the snapshot would have been taken "sometime in March". This aptly named the airdrop "The Sometime in March Airdrop".
But then things got crazy.
Nano was attacked and essentially shut down, going from a fee-less, instant form of payment to something similar to BTC in terms of speed, but still fee-less. This affected Banano as well. Between then and now, the Banano team have altered their "#bannouncements". The snapshot was later announced to have taken place in April.
I don't advocate harassment, but it was understandable when no one saw their Banano airdrop, we got worried. Some asked questions, and as evidenced by this screenshot, some even took it too far:
It is now mid-May, and recently we heard great news: The airdrops were beginning to roll-out!:
That announcement took place on the 10th. Since then, I've been sweeping my Natrium wallet daily with Kalium to see if I received the airdrop. After seeing I still hadn't received it, a source told me that the Banano team limited the airdrop to those who were holding at least 25 Nano during the snapshot. I didn't believe them. So I asked in their discord. This was their response:
If you dig a little deeper, you'll also find they changed the snapshot to "February". Did they even do a snapshot?
So there you have it. Despite this not being an initial or announced condition, you had to have at least 25 Nano to receive the airdrop. As I said, if you're like me, you most-likely didn't have 25 Nano during the snapshot. So also if you're like me, stop waiting with baited breath, and learn from this experience that taking someone for their word always has real potential of disappointment and regret, ESPECIALLY when it comes to money.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this is something that has bugged me for a long time. I finally have some (very disappointing) closure, and I hope this brings closure to you as well if you've been checking your wallets every single day for months.
Flipping Out in the Juungle
Has it really been three months?
It feels like it was just yesterday when I started my NFT journey. Although I have been exploring other markets and blockchains recently, I owe my NFT beginning to Juungle and Bitcoin Cash.
When I first started, Juungle was in extremely early development, but I was already getting sales. I may not be part of the team but as an agent and as an artist I am proud of the Juungle team and I am proud to show you their new Flipstarter: https://flipstarter.juungle.net/
In three months' time it's nothing short of amazing what they've been able to accomplish. However with Bitcoin Cash being so far behind in the NFT market, it has been my firm belief that Juungle's success, and the success of the NFT market on Bitcoin Cash, relies on the support of the Bitcoin Cash community. We don't want to let this prime chance at adoption to slip through our fingers.
I'll be blunt: Give these guys your money. They've been working non-stop at making Bitcoin Cash a viable alternative to expensive ETH markets, and they need our support to rocket the market to the moon. You may or may not be "into" the NFT scene, but it doesn't mean it isn't there.
When you invest in Juungle, you invest in Bitcoin Cash.
I wish JT, Joey, Huerte, the rest of the team, the artists and agents (including myself) the best of luck at getting this Flipstarter done as quickly as possible. I believe in you!
The State of NFTs on BCH (SLP)
This is coming from the point of view of a seller, a marketer, and a slight artist, if you would give me that much credit. I make NFTs for my clients, and on rare occasions, now for myself as well. I went into this venture with a sell-only mentality, and as much as I would like to boast that I was able to stick to that, I would be lying if I did.
Here are some NFTs I currently own. These are all on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain:
I wanted to be able to confidently say that I supported the new NFT industry that I so desperately wanted to embrace me and my artists. Without a lot of money, I had to focus on NFTs that had a low initial value. But then that's where everything starts getting mucky. When you start using the word, "value", it stirs up some arguments. It all goes to the beginning of Juungle:
The Waifu were procedurally-generated characters with their own stats and unique looks that took advantage of a very specific niche. I wouldn't blame Waifu fans if they thought of Juungle as "The Waifu Shop" because that's probably what it was to most of them back then.
Then the floodgates opened:
There still seems to be some sort of market for Waifu. There lies a tale of a mystical whale who loves Waifu and is picking them off one by one. But when Juungle was injected with the rest of the procedurally generated NFTs, some of the Waifu lovers felt slighted because their niche market had suddenly opened up to the wide world of just about everything. On top of this, due to the mathematical essence of procedurally generated content, there is so much of it that it effectively drowns out the non-procedurally generated stuff. This was mitigated for a bit when @blockparty-sh and his team completely overhauled the front page, but the sellers quickly figured out that if they simply continued their old habit of withdrawing and relisting their NFTs, they could game the system into forcing their procedurally generated content to the front page.
Despite the technical hang-ups and growing pains, one huge issue that can't be ignored is the fact that other blockchains have huge head-starts over BCH when it comes to NFTs. At first, I thought most of the BCH community would be excited about NFTs. But the truth is that even Roger Ver and Marc De Mesel have recently in interviews expressed that their interest in NFTs is nonexistent. For some reason I thought they would have seen it as a form of adoption worth supporting. I can't speak for them, but going off those interviews, I'd guess that they don't have Zapit wallets installed on their phones.
The truth be told, there's a lot of high-effort work on Juungle, and there's some questionable work as well. I will still be marketing on Juungle and minting NFTs on BCH, but I'm now looking at the WAX model. I wish WAX took BCH but it is its own ecosystem. They seem to have a market that BCH doesn't have right now when it comes to NFTs. I haven't been able to really put that to the test yet, though. One of my artists is even toying with the idea of putting one piece on OpenSea. So we will be weighing our options.
In the meantime, please follow my pro-tip for Juungle if you pay them a visit: At least for the time being, if nothing catches your eye on the front page, check out the collections. There you can gauge the quality for yourself. I still have high hopes for BCH overall outside of NFT. But the uphill battle it currently has in the NFT scene is kind of brutal, and I can tell you that the Juungle team has been working their asses off on the site. They're constantly updating it and I know a lot of work is going on behind the scenes. There's no way in hell I could lose faith in them. I just wish I could afford to wait the market out, but I can't.
Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin - Why we need to stop bashing Bitcoin
*"It's a scam!"*
*"It's not the real Bitcoin!"*
*"They're trying to appropriate the Bitcoin name!"*
*"Bcash...!"*
*"Your crypto is SAFU on the exchanges!"*
*"Higher fees means better security!"*
*"It's just another altcoin!"*
*"Digital gold is Bitcoin's use-case!"*
These were the lies fed to me when I first entered the crypto sphere. At first I believed them. Why wouldn't I? The price of Bitcoin BTC is far higher than the price of Bitcoin Cash. Almost all of the exchanges are based around BTC and USD. Even now, on Binance.us, if you want to trade, say Nano for BCH, you can't just do a direct trade. You have to first trade the Nano for BTC or USD and then trade the BTC or USD for BCH. This is a recurring theme in many other exchanges as well. Also, most everyone refers to BTC as just "Bitcoin", obviously because it is the granddaddy of cryptocurrencies and was the original Bitcoin from the start.
Like everything else, BTC has changed. Bitcoin BTC maximalists will vehemently deny this and even spend their time trolling Bitcoin Cash communities with misinformation, overt lies, and harassment. They do this because they are scared. You see, when BTC changed, it was essentially captured. When the Bitcoin BTC maximalists succeeded in their capture of BTC, they forever doomed it to slow transactions, high fees, and inaccessibility. This capture, along with it's already-existing dominance in the crypto sphere, turned it into a cash cow for them to pump and dump at will. They won't admit to this, though. They would rather have you think that BTC is the same Bitcoin that Satoshi Nakamoto dreamt-up and detailed in his original whitepaper. They are deathly afraid of the general public waking up to truth, causing the value of their stockpiles of unusable BTC to plummet. https://www.bitcoin.com/bitcoin.pdf
But the truth is that it isn't anywhere close to what it used to be. This issue can quickly be put to rest by reading the very first sentence in the original Bitcoin whitepaper: https://www.bitcoin.com/bitcoin.pdf
***"A purely peer-to-peer version of electronic cash would allow online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution."***
BTC is no longer Bitcoin
Let's break it down:
***"...purely peer-to-peer version of...cash...without... a financial institution."***
One might argue that Bitcoin BTC is peer-to-peer. And they'd be right. It is very much possible to send BTC from one person to another without the use of a middleman. But is it practical? According to YCharts.com, as of my writing this article, the average cost per BTC transaction is a whopping $191.40! Granted, this is on the extreme spectrum of transaction costs over time, and it is possible to transact BTC without spending that much, but given that the average is so high, combined with how slow the transactions are (from a minimum 10 minutes to multiple days depending on the fee paid) it's safe to surmise that the majority of BTC transactions taking place today are extremely high-price transactions. Would you spend $191.40 to spend $5.00 on a caramel macchiato? The average person most likely wouldn't! Now think about this: For the transaction to be purely peer-to-peer, the buyer would have to first obtain BTC (usually from an exchange). That includes transferring the BTC from their exchange of choice to their preferred wallet. Only THEN can they use it in a peer-to-peer transaction, making the average peer-to-peer BTC transaction cost $382.80 when the withdrawal from an exchange is included! https://ycharts.com/indicators/bitcoin_average_cost_per_transaction#:~:text=Basic%20Info,from%2031.85%20one%20year%20ago.
So what has been the solution of the BTC maximalists? Transaction fees are insanely high, and if they want true peer-to-peer transactions, their already outrageous transaction fees get doubled. How would they use it to buy that $5 caramel macchiato in a peer-to-peer transaction? The answer is they DON'T. What the BTC maximalist won't tell you is they normally opt to keep most or even all of their BTC on an exchange, AKA ***"...a financial institution."*** Why wouldn't they? How is it practical to spend $191.40 to withdraw $5? We all know the simple answer to that question. It isn't.
Fees aside, let's talk about the use of the word ***"...cash..."*** in the whitepaper. What is the purpose of cash? It's money that you have on-hand, ready to spend when needed. The average BTC transaction (the ones that cost $191.40) takes 10 minutes to process. 10 minutes is not fast enough to complete an everyday transaction, such as purchasing that caramel macchiato. Even if you already withdrew the BTC from your exchange, waiting 10 minutes for your transaction to process before the barista starts working on your drink is simply not practical. You'd be holding up the line, clogging their point-of-sale system. If you happened to pay less for your transaction, it could take DAYS for it to complete. Due to its slow transactions alone, BTC is **not** cash. The high fees only exacerbate the issue.
BCH is, indeed, Bitcoin
So if BTC isn't Bitcoin, and it was the original Bitcoin, does that mean Bitcoin has ceased to exist? Thankfully, no. Bitcoin Cash was hard-forked directly from BTC as a pre-emptive strike against those who would end up capturing BTC and calling it things like "Store-of-value" and "digital gold", straying as far away from ***"...purely peer-to-peer version of...cash...without... a financial institution."*** as possible. While the current average cost per transaction of BTC is $191.40, the average cost per transaction of BCH is 1/3 of a penny, or **58,000x less than BTC**! As far as speed goes, blocks are created for BCH at the same rate as BTC, which is ten minutes per block. However, given that each BCH transaction is guaranteed to confirm within ten minutes, as opposed to multiple days in the case of BTC, the initiation of BCH transactions are generally accepted as confirmations by those who accept BCH. Think about it: Would you be more wary about money that confirms in 10 minutes every time? Or would a transaction that could take hours, days, weeks, or even months to confirm worry you more?
Because Bitcoin Cash is practical to use as cash in both terms of fees and speed, there is no reason to keep your BCH on an exchange, and thus it fits the definition of Bitcoin. The fact that it was hard-forked from what was the original Bitcoin only strengthens this fact. Bitcoin Cash has the name, the history, and most-importantly, the utility.
Let's start calling BCH what it is: Bitcoin
It has become standard practice to refer to BTC as "Bitcoin" and BCH as "Bitcoin Cash". This is likely due to the fact that BTC came first and was indeed Bitcoin for a period of time. But once it was captured and hard-forked, the torch was passed to Bitcoin Cash. Between BTC and BCH, only one can pass the test of the very first sentence in the original Bitcoin whitepaper, and that is BCH. BCH is Bitcoin. Bitcoin is BCH. They are one and the same.
When we speak of BTC, we need to stop just saying, "Bitcoin". We can use its ticker, BTC, for sure. But if we must include the Bitcoin name when referring to BTC, the least we could do is specify that we are talking about BTC and not BCH by saying "Bitcoin BTC" or "Bitcoin Core". It did, after all, once represent the true Bitcoin, so dropping the Bitcoin name entirely might not be respectful to its history as a stepping-stone to BCH. But that's all BTC is. And while the BTC maximalists collect their gold stepping stones and store them on exchanges, sitting on it like Smaug, we over here in the BCH community are making real progress and using real cash. We are using **REAL BITCOIN**!
How I went from jobless for 4 years to working with 3 clients, producing and selling NFT for Bitcoin
I need to come clean: This is not a success story. This is rather a story of hope and a vision for a better tomorrow. I did not suddenly strike it rich. All of my woes didn't disappear overnight. But I finally feel like my time is being used to the best of my ability, and that I am creating value for myself, my family, the people I now work with, and the community as a whole.
I owe my life to my partner, whom I love more than anyone else in this world. If it weren't for her, I would be out in the cold streets, or worse. But four years is a long time. And four years of trying to cope with various mental health issues and not being able to contribute financially has more than taken its toll. For so long it has been the only thing I could think about. After looking and looking for work, swinging and missing every time, it has become difficult to not succumb to my emotions. I even tried running a comic book review website in hopes of earning ad revenue, but that didn't pan out in my favor (but I DID get to interview Garth Ennis, and that was pretty cool!).
Let's fast-forward through those depressing four years. And let's also be honest. Life isn't always bad when you're poor. It's just exponentially worse than if you weren't. There are still days when I smile, have hope, and even have fun. Despite my emo take on life sometimes, I acknowledge that people exist who have it much worse than I do. But being happy with my lot in life is not what I've ever been about. I seek success. I seek wellness, and I desire nothing more than to be able to provide a comfortable life for my family. For my partner, who has stuck by me through thick-and-thin for almost thirteen years.
Last week, I stumbled upon a tutorial on how to make NFT on the Bitcoin Cash Blockchain. I had already been in the crypto sphere for a couple of years, but I at best dabbled, never having more than $100 in crypto because I can't ever afford to buy it. I also frequently had to cash out for necessities like groceries. But in my dabbling I heard a lot about people utilizing NFT to sell their artwork and other goods. When I encountered the tutorial, I *IMMEDIATELY* thought about my brother, who had long-ago taken up the hobby of toy photography under the mantle of Photoyshop. NFT is a relatively new market, and I knew that his beautiful artwork would be a prime candidate for the NFT treatment. Before I even finished the tutorial, I got on the phone with him and said, "We need to go into business *NOW*!" He and I had never before discussed the topic of NFT, but he already knew exactly what I was proposing after recently seeing what happened with Beeple. I immediately got to work. https://www.instagram.com/photoyshop/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zTpJJoHmnE
After much trial and error, I struck a gold mine of information when I contacted JT Freeman, the person behind Waifu Faucet and Juungle.net. Juungle is pretty much THE place to buy and sell NFT on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain. With their guidance, I was able to mint my brother's very first NFT and post it to the marketplace. Before I minted any more, knowing how difficult of a time I had in trying to figure it all out on my own, I published my first-ever read.cash article, detailing the entire process. To my surprise and delight, it got over over 1,000 views and had earned almost $50.00 in BCH tips over the course of two days! https://read.cash/@blockparty-sh https://waifufaucet.com/ https://www.juungle.net/#/ https://read.cash/@VideoGameDana/how-to-create-an-slp-nft-that-displays-artwork-properly-on-both-slp-explorer-and-juunglenet-d021c141
On the first day of posting Photoyshop's NFT up for sale, we sold one for $100 in BCH! https://simpleledger.info/#token/fc6a25496c479da9230fc268728a88f06f461d5dd0838eff859a8a4e734b76df
https://simpleledger.info/#token/fc6a25496c479da9230fc268728a88f06f461d5dd0838eff859a8a4e734b76df
Part of me couldn't believe it. I mean, here I was with an idea and I ran with it, and my brother supported it, and it immediately paid off! But another part of me wasn't surprised at all, because I believe in my brother's dedication to his craft 100%. No, we didn't get $69 million for it, but my brother could previously only dream to profit from his art, and well, I was having trouble dreaming at all. Because of the tips I made from the tutorial, and my cut of the sale, I experienced the first time that I was ever able to buy groceries and medicine with my crypto earnings, while not completely tapping my crypto wallet. None of this would have been possible without Bitcoin Cash adoption and technology.
What comes next, you ask? I could just focus on minting tokens at the request of Photoyshop and seeing if they sell on Juungle. But no, shortly after our first sale, my brother tells me to contact his longtime friend, Justin Luis Vargas. I had met him a number of times and even seen some of his work, so when his name was mentioned I nearly jumped for joy! Here was yet another prime candidate for NFT treatment, an artist who really SHOULD be known around the world for what he does. I mean, check out this piece of his! https://www.instagram.com/jlv.art/
LOOK at this! It's BEAUTIFUL! Sure, I may have had a life-sized poster of Gogo Yubari on my wall when I was younger, but bias or no, Justin's work is that of a master of his craft! I feel privileged to work with both my brother and Justin in this Wild West that is the NFT marketplace.
"But wait!" you say. "The title of this article says THREE clients. Who's the third?" you ask. Well, figurative reader, I'm glad you asked. Let me introduce you to lucivay! https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackCrowartist/
I met lucivay in Nasty Nate's Crypto Community on Twitch. Nate had commissioned her to produce artwork for his channel, and she often showcases her art in Nate's Discord channel. She's a great person and an amazing artist. I am proud to call her my client! https://www.twitch.tv/nastynatesvideos
I don't know what's in store for us in the near or distant future, but I hope for the best. The smile on my partner's face is worth all of the work I put in and more. I know that this will be an uphill battle, but it's a battle I'm willing to fight. Stay tuned for more NFT featuring these three amazing artists because I am working tirelessly to make this happen! You know what the icing on the cake is? All of us are exclusively accepting Bitcoin Cash as payment. Adoption for the win! https://danaalcala.github.io/NFT/
Have a great rest of your day, and thanks for reading.
How to create an SLP NFT that displays artwork properly on both SLP Explorer and juungle.net!
UPDATE - This article is somewhat deprecated if you know Typescript. The good folks at Juungle have been working on their own built-in NFT maker, but while you wait for them to finish that up, they've provided a tool to help you make your NFTs: The Fungal Spore Exploder. I'm told it can help you make them quicker, but I personally haven't had a chance to give it a thorough look. https://github.com/Juungle/fungal-spore-exploder
Special thanks and shout-outs:
JT Freeman for walking me through the process, and for developing the technology that made it all possible! https://read.cash/@blockparty-sh
u/Sir_Shibes for pointing me in the right direction. https://www.reddit.com/user/Sir_Shibes
CeriCat for aiding in my research and for helping me keep my head on my shoulders for countless years now. https://twitter.com/cericat
Software that you will need:
Electron Cash SLP - Keep in mind that this is currently a desktop-only solution. You will not be able to fully follow this tutorial on a mobile device. https://simpleledger.cash/project/electron-cash-slp-edition/
Your favorite image editor. Gimp is a free and powerful solution. https://www.gimp.org/downloads/
GitHub Desktop, or if you are already familiar with command-line GitHub and have it installed, you can use that. This is for if you wish to host your artwork on GitHub Pages, and also for the purpose of verifying your NFT. You can still use your own hosting if you already have it, but you still need GitHub for the verification process. Make sure you have a GitHub account and some form of GitHub installed before proceeding with this tutorial. This tutorial will only cover usage of GitHub Desktop, but if you're using command-line GitHub you probably know how to follow along anyways. https://desktop.github.com/ https://pages.github.com/
I, like most people, first followed this tutorial on my first attempt at creating an NFT. It is a great tutorial, but if you follow it like I did, you'll realize that when you're done, SLP Explorer doesn't display your beautiful artwork, and even worse, neither does the premier NFT marketplace, juungle.net! This became quite the headache for me, but I didn't give up. https://news.bitcoin.com/a-step-by-step-guide-to-creating-and-selling-non-fungible-tokens-built-with-bitcoin-cash/ https://simpleledger.info/ https://www.juungle.net/#/
During my research, I examined a few of the Waifu tokens on SLP Explorer. The reason for this is they are currently the most prominent NFT available for sale on juungle, and even more importantly, their images display properly on both SLP Explorer and juungle! I noticed a few key differences between the Waifu tokens and my NFT token that I minted while following the tutorial mentioned previously: https://simpleledger.info/#token/a2987562a405648a6c5622ed6c205fca6169faa8afeb96a994b48010bd186a66
My NFT was a Parent/Group token, while the Waifu tokens were all Child tokens of the WGRP Parent/Group token. The Waifu tokens all display their respective artwork, while the WGRP token does not display any artwork, as it doesn't represent only one piece of artwork, but rather all of the Waifu tokens as a group.
Following the tutorial, I had set the document URL of my NFT to the IPFS link that hosted the artwork for my NFT. However, all of the Waifu tokens had the same document URL: waifufaucet.com. https://waifufaucet.com/
I had burned the minting baton during creation of my NFT because of my intent for it to be one-of-a-kind (and because the tutorial tells you to choose "Fixed Supply"), however, the WGRP tokens still have a live minting baton, which means more tokens can be minted if/when needed.
So my next step in research was to figure out how to create a Parent/Group token with child tokens. I found this page with all the technical details of the process, but to tell the truth I didn't understand it much at all. I had trouble wrapping my head around the concept of creating tokens and burning them to create NFT. I was still pretty lost. u/Sir_Shibes on reddit had hooked me up with JT Freeman's contact info earlier, and this is when I decided to contact them. It turns out that JT Freeman is the dev responsible for SLP Explorer AND juungle, and is the creator of the Waifu tokens! I should have contacted them so much sooner! JT Freeman graciously walked me through the process, so finally, it is time for me to pay it forward and do the same for you. https://github.com/simpleledger/slp-specifications/blob/master/slp-nft-1.md
Step 1. Mint the Parent/Group token for your NFT
***Open Electron Cash SLP***.
If you don't already have a wallet created, go ahead and do so by choosing ***File-->New/Restore***. You can also import an existing wallet with your 12-word mnemonic by choosing "***Standard wallet***" and then "***I already have a seed***". If you import an existing wallet, it will ask for a derivation path and will provide you with examples of derivation paths for BTC, BCH, and SLP. You will need to find the derivation path for the original wallet that you are attempting to import from. I can tell you that as of this writing, Bitcoin.com and signup.cash wallets both use the BTC derivation path. This may change in the future, but if you get it wrong the first time, don't panic. You can always delete the newly-imported wallet from Electron Cash SLP and re-import it with the correct derivation path. ****Pro-tip****: *If you accidentally send your NFT to an incompatible wallet, such as the Bitcoin.com wallet, importing it into Electron Cash SLP this way is one way to save your NFT from entering the abyss!* https://www.bitcoin.com/ https://wallet.signup.cash/
***Fund your wallet with some Bitcoin Cash (BCH)*** if you haven't already. Keep in mind that whenever you mint a token of any kind, you will need a little under $0.01 worth of BCH for mining fees. If you have a dollar's worth of BCH, I'd recommend dropping it into your wallet. You won't need anywhere near a full dollar to complete the process, but having more than you need will prevent you from having to worry about frequently funding your wallet. You can always send whatever you don't use back to your wallet of choice.
Click on the ***Tokens*** tab.
Click on ***Create New Token***.
***Name your Parent/Group token***. Keep in mind that because this is the Parent/Group token and not one of the Child tokens, you won't be linking any specific NFT to this token alone. So name it accordingly. For example, the WGRP token mentioned earlier is named "Waifu Faucet". In my case, I am minting tokens for my brother, photoyshop on Instagram, so I named the Parent/Group token "PHOTOYSHOP". Choose a name that will represent all of your NFT tokens. This can be your name, your handle, or anything else that represents your artwork. https://www.instagram.com/photoyshop/
***Give your Parent/Group token a Ticker Symbol***. As mentioned earlier, the Parent/Group token for the Waifu tokens is called "WGRP", which I can only assume means "Waifu Group". I kept mine simple and also called the Ticker Symbol for my Parent/Group token "PHOTOYSHOP". Keep in mind this is the first thing people will see when they look this token up in SLP Explorer, so choose wisely.
***Provide a Document URL***. In the previous tutorial, we were told to provide the IPFS link in this textbox. However, because you will be hosting your own artwork, you can put whatever you want here. This is why the Waifu tokens have "waifufaucet.com" in this spot. For my NFT, I put a link to my brother's Instagram, which is where his online presence resides. I recommend putting something that represents either your artwork, or at least yourself, like a personal web page, gallery, or portfolio. But at the end of the day, this one's up to you!
***Keep the Decimal Places set to 0***. This ensures the actual creation of NFT.
***Choose an initial quantity of tokens to mint***. So the way this works is for every time you mint a Child token of this Parent/Group token, a minted token will be burned to create the Child NFT. Think of it like evolving a Pokemon. You lose something but gain something else that is an evolved version of what you lost. For my brother's NFT, I chose a number of tokens more-than-double the amount of artwork he has produced. So for example, he has produced more than 800 pieces of toy photography, so I minted 2000 tokens. This should be more than enough for him to double his output over a long period of time. Don't worry too much about this for now. Just know that the more you mint now, the less you will have to mint later (and the less BCH you will spend on doing so). https://simpleledger.info/#token/7c1ee88d3eb9d89372734087bcb2ca2aa66ff06cb79bbe6f0034a43b2ae37293
***Do not change the Token Receiver Address***. Electron Cash SLP will automatically populate the Token Receiver Address with your wallet address. I highly recommend that you do not change this address as you will be working within your Electron Cash SLP wallet during the course of this tutorial.
***Uncheck Fixed Supply***. Contrary to the other tutorial, you don't want to burn the minting baton for your Parent/Group token. By not limiting yourself to a fixed supply, you can mint as many NFT as you need to in the future. If at the end of the day you retire from producing art or worse, any unused tokens and the minting baton can be burned to represent this. But for now, we're just getting started. Keep your options open.
***Check "Is NFT Parent?"***. This is very important. By checking this box, you're indicating that you want to produce a Child NFT from this Parent/Group token.
***Double and triple-check your work!*** As they say, measure three times and cut once. Making sure all of your input is correct is a crucial step in ensuring that you produce a desired result.
Click ***Create New Token.*** This is the final step in minting your Parent/Group token. If your wallet is encrypted, you will be prompted to enter your password. When the process is complete, your wallet will be charged a very small mining fee (usually less than $0.01 in BCH), and your wallet will be funded with the tokens that you minted.
Step 2: Mint your first Child NFT
Make sure you are on the ***Tokens*** tab in Electron Cash SLP.
***Right-click on your newly-minted Parent/Group token.***
Click on ***Create New NFT***.
Click on **Prepare Group Parent** - This splits the parent so that you can create Child tokens from it.
***Give your new NFT a unique name***. Keep in mind that this is the actual NFT that will be forever linked to your artwork that (hopefully) people will want to buy. Make sure that it has a name that stands out from the rest. For example the Waifu tokens are all named after the actual waifu character that they represent.
Set the ***Ticker Symbol*** for your new NFT. For example, the Ticker Symbol for the Waifu tokens is "WAIFU". In the case of my NFT, I just put "PHOTOYSHOP" again. Like the Parent/Group token, the Ticker Symbol is the first thing people see when they view your NFT on SLP Explorer. Again, choose wisely.
Enter the ***Document URL***. Again you can put whatever you want here, but I recommend using the same Document URL that you used for the Parent/Group token. For example, I used my brother's Instagram for the NFT just like I did for its Parent/Group token.
***Don't change the Token Receiver Address***. Same as before.
Click ***Create NFT***. Again you will be prompted for your password and then charged a mining fee to mint your NFT. One of your already-minted tokens from before will also be burned during creation of the NFT.
Step 3: Prepare and host the artwork for your NFT
On your hosting server, create the following file and folder structure:
Using your favorite image editing software, ***convert your artwork to a PNG file***, and for its name, give it the ***Token ID*** of your NFT. You can obtain the Token ID by right-clicking the NFT in the Tokens tab in Electron Cash SLP, clicking ***View Token Details***, and then copying the Token ID.
***Save your PNG*** in the "original" folder. For example, for my brother's first NFT, I named the file "7c1ee88d3eb9d89372734087bcb2ca2aa66ff06cb79bbe6f0034a43b2ae37293.png" and placed it in the "original" folder. https://simpleledger.info/#token/7c1ee88d3eb9d89372734087bcb2ca2aa66ff06cb79bbe6f0034a43b2ae37293
Using your favorite image editor, ***create a square version of your artwork***. Depending on the art, you might have to crop the art to do this. So if you do have to do that, try to crop out the most representative portion of the art. Save this square version somewhere outside of the hosting service, but also somewhere that is easily accessible for you.
Using the square version of your art, ***create scaled-down versions*** in the following sizes: ***128x128***, ***64x64***, and ***32x32***. Make sure to place them in their respective folders. For example, the 128x128 version will go into the "128" folder, and so on and so forth. ***Make sure all of these files share the exact same name and file type as the file you saved in the "original" folder!*** That means each image will be referenced first by its size and then by the Token ID.
***Edit the README.md file*** with a text editor to say whatever you want. Here is an example of what I put in mine:
By now, each folder should have one PNG in them each, all sharing the same name. They should all be hosted on your favorite hosting service, whether it be GitHub Pages or something else, and available on the internet. Now you are ready to verify your tokens!
Step 4: Verify your tokens
***Open up GitHub Desktop*** and make sure you are logged in.
***Navigate to the*** ***SLP Explorer GitHub Page***. https://github.com/blockparty-sh/slp-explorer
Click on ***Code*** and then ***Open with*** ***GitHub Desktop***.
If your browser prompts you, go ahead and ***allow it to open GitHub Desktop***. You should already have it opened by now so this should speed up the loading time for you.
Allow GitHub Desktop to ***clone the repository***.
Navigate to your local GitHub folder and find the SLP Explorer folder "***slp-explorer***". Inside the SLP Explorer folder, enter the "***public***" folder. Inside the "public" folder, right-click on "***group_icon_repos.json***" and open it in either a text editor or a code editor. I recommend a code editor like VS Code, but Notepad should also do the trick.
Remember when you copied the Token ID of the NFT? You're now going to want to do the same thing, but only this time for the original Parent/Group token that you first minted before minting the NFT. It's the same process: ***Right click on the Parent/Group token, click View Token Details, and then copy the Token ID***.
Back to the group_icon_repos JSON file, you want to ***add an additional entry***. First, add a comma (,) to the end of the last entry and then press Enter for a new line. On that new line, ***in double-quotes***, you want to paste the Parent/Group Token ID that you just copied in the last step. After the closing set of double-quotes, input a colon (:). Add a space, and then again in double quotes, type or copy & paste the URL of the artwork server you set up before. Save the file.
GitHub Desktop should automatically detect the change that you made to the file. Give the commit a header and a description, and then click on ***Commit to master***.
In GitHub Desktop, click on ***Branch*** at the top menu, and then click ***Create pull request***.
GitHub Desktop will then ask if you wish to Push the commit. ***Go ahead and Push the commit***.
It will then ask if you wish to fork the repository because you don't have write access. ***Go ahead and fork the repository***.
Next it will ask you how you wish to use the fork. Choose "***To contribute to the parent project***" and click ***Continue***.
Click on ***Branch*** again and ***Create Pull Request*** again. It will ask you if you wish to Push again. ***Go ahead and push***. This should open up a browser window detailing your pull request.
In the browser window, ***click the big, green Create Pull Request button***.
On the next page, ***click the next Create pull request button***.
The last step in the verification process is to ***wait for the owner of the SLP Explorer GitHub page to accept or deny your pull request***. I recommend monitoring the page daily to see whether or not they accepted it.
Once the owner of the SLP Explorer GitHub page accepts your pull request, your images should be cached on SLP Explorer.
**IMPORTANT: Do NOT submit your NFT to juungle before your pull request is accepted! If you do so, your artwork will not show up on juungle. Make sure SLP Explorer has cached your artwork BEFORE trying to sell your NFT.**
***ALSO IMPORTANT: Although you will no longer have to go through the verification process anymore as long as you consistently use the same hosting for your artwork, if you mint any more NFTs from the Parent/Group NFT, make sure you prepare and host the artwork variations AND double-check that SLP Explorer has cached the artwork before submitting it to juungle. Once it's on juungle, if the artwork isn't showing up, it won't ever show up, so it is CRUCIAL that you keep these steps in mind.***
LAST IMPORTANT THING:
**If your images are cached with SLP Explorer but not showing up on juungle, this means that juungle's webmaster needs to refresh/update the marketplace. Please contact juungle using their preferred methods found at the bottom of the web page. Please be patient, as they might not be able to refresh/update the marketplace right away, but they are very diligent in keeping the marketplace running smoothly and if you let them know there is an issue, they will keep that in mind before they complete their next update.**
I know this was a long read, but if you got this far, CONGRATULATIONS! This task may seem daunting now, but like anything else, do it enough times and it will become muscle memory. I hope this was helpful to you, and I hope this article helps level the playing field in the new SLP NFT marketplace for sellers around the world. Please share it with anyone you know is interested in creating their own SLP NFT. Have a great rest of your day!
**ERRATA:**
Added fourth sub-step in Step 2: Mint your first Child NFT. Without this step you won't be able to progress.
Added 15th and 16th sub-steps in Step 4: Verify your tokens. If you don't click the big green buttons, the owner of SLP Explorer won't be notified of your pull request.
Added LAST IMPORTANT THING section before the conclusion of this article.
Please let me know if you find any more errors in the article. I strive to keep this accurate and helpful. Thank you!
Added update about the Fungal Spore Exploder at the beginning of the article. https://github.com/Juungle/fungal-spore-exploder
@VideoGameDana
