Howdy! In the past couple of days, I've observed an increase in NFT discourse among the read.cash community. Frankly, with the NFT market booming throughout 2021 and snowballing into the New Year, it's to be expected.

One thing that most NFT bros don't talk about is the steep entry barrier for those trying to mint or purchase their first item on Ethereum's Mainnet. Gas fees are notoriously high, and the surrounding hype has made the network even more congested over the holidays.

Thankfully, there are other networks with Web3 capabilities. Today I'll be showing you how to leverage your earnings from read/noise.cash to purchase your very first NFT on the smartBCH network via oasis.cash, the network's most prominent NFT marketplace.

Let's get it 😎.

First off, I wanted to give a huge shoutout to @Jumper-01 for explaining his very first experience purchasing a smartBCH NFT in an easy-to-follow format.

His article inspired me to mint my first smartBCH NFT: Cattos NFT.

Before we get into how I purchased the NFT, I will be providing the resources for swapping BCH to SEP20, the token for smartBCH's sidechain.

Step 0: The setup

Here is the general overview of what you will need to set up before exploring the oasis.cash NFT marketplace:

• A MetaMask wallet to hold your SEP20 tokens.

• Another external wallet where you hold your BCH from your read/noise.cash earnings. I use the Coinbase wallet.

• SmartBCH network added to your MetaMask wallet

• MetaMask wallet connected to CoinFlex

I'll be going over everything except setting up your MetaMask wallet since there are already thousands of articles on the web explaining how to do this.

Step 1: Add smartBCH network to MetaMask wallet

Begin by opening your MetaMask on your browser. You should see something like this:

Now, click "Ethereum Mainnet" at the top of the page, and you'll see a popup. Ignore the other networks I've added on there. You will not see smartBCH as of yet.

Click "Add Network" at the bottom. You will be directed to this page:

From here, plug-in this info into each of its respective info boxes:

• Network Name --> smartBCH

• ChainID --> 0x2710

• Block Explorer URL --> https://www.smartscan.cash/

• New RPC URL --> https://smartbch.greyh.at

• Currency Symbol --> BCH

And you're done! Once you go back into your MetaMask wallet, you will be able to switch between the Ethereum Mainnet and smartBCH! Just remember to switch back to Ethereum Mainnet when using OpenSea or any other Ethereum Dapp or DEX.

Step 2: Swap BCH to SEP20

You need to swap BCH to SEP20 tokens to use Dapps, DEXs, and DeFi on the smartBCH network. Without SEP20, you will not be able to purchase NFTs.

Now you may be wondering what the difference is between SEP20 and BCH. It is particularly confusing because when you're done swapping BCH to SEP20, it will still appear as BCH in your MetaMask wallet.

This is because they are essentially the same thing, except one is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (SEP20) and referred to as a token, while the other is just the regular BCH coin run on the hard-forked BCH payment network.

So how do I swap? 

It's not a complicated process. You first need to connect your MetaMask wallet to a "bridge." Several bridges out there will allow you to fulfill this step, but the one I chose was CoinFlex because of this guide.

I won't bother going into the details of swapping BCH to SEP20, as the hyperlink listed above explains the process in a simple step-by-step guide. Please follow this article to a tee as it will be the only way you will be able to mint/purchase NFTs on the smartBCH network.

Step 3: Exploring smartBCH NFTs!

Okay, now you finally have BCH in your MetaMask wallet on the smartBCH network. Congrats! It should look something like this:

Hopefully, you don't have the tiny amount of BCH as I do. I spent it all Cattos NFT, so I guess you could say it was a guilty pleasure 🤷.

Now we've reached the fun part: Connecting your MetaMask wallet to oasis.cash and exploring which collection you would like to partake!

Connecting your wallet is the same process as any other website. All you have to do is click the "Connect" button on the right side of the screen. Make sure your wallet is set on the smartBCH network!

Once you're good to go, you should see this on your screen:

And voila! Now it's time to explore all the collections listed on the oasis.cash NFT marketplace.

To do this, simply hit "Explore" on the main page:

You should see all the collections including LAW Punks, CryptoR.AT, CashCats, DAIQUI.DUDES and so on.

Which collection should I support?

In my opinion, the entire smartBCH NFT market will grow as a whole over 2022. Therefore, buying into any of these collections could reap the profits you seek.

But this doesn't mean you should randomly pick one and ape in. Instead, commit to your due diligence (DD) as you would with any other NFT project.

I found that Cattos NFT has a growing Telegram community with hundreds of mints occurring each and every day.

A reminder: smartBCH NFT projects won't nearly have the same amount of hype or community following as Ethereum NFT projects. SmartBCH is still a relatively new network without the backing of millions of active users.

Therefore, I would highly recommend you look into the creators of each NFT project listed on oasis.cash. For example, the creator of Cattos NFT (called "Rugg" on Telegram) has frequently participated in the chat and has been transparent about the direction of the project.

If you would like to mint your first Cattos NFT, click here.

Final remarks

And that's a wrap!

Remember to tell all your friends about smartBCH if you want to see the network grow to the likes of Ethereum! Also, continue to use the various Dapps and DEXs to expand smartBCH's network effect.

Without your continued support, we may never see smartBCH come to fruition.

Sources:

https://read.cash/@Jumper-01/smartbch-episode-my-first-smartbch-nft-a21f0087

https://www.publish0x.com/the-cryptochain/how-to-convert-bch-into-smartbch-xjodzvl

https://read.cash/@Pantera/smartbch-for-beginners-start-here-9f7ec63e

https://docs.smartbch.org/smartbch/smartbch-evolution-proposals-seps/sep-20#1--summary