Bitshares NFTs
I've developed tools to issue and view NFTs on the Bitshares blockchain and have recently been asked to explain the fees associated with issuing your own NFT collection on the Bitshares blockchain.
So there's several aspects to consider, let's go through them:
Asset name lengths
The shorter your NFT asset name, the more expensive it will be.
The most expensive asset names are <= 3 characters in length, followed by 4 chars in length, then 5+
I'd recommend to pick an NFT asset name with at least 5 characters so save on fees.
Here's the current fees for creating an asset on the Bitshares blockchain (subject to change):
| Fee type | Standard fee | LTM fee |
|---|---|---|
| Symbols with 3 Characters | 1,206,523.55825 BTS | 723,914.13495 BTS |
| Symbols with 4 Characters | 241,304.71165 BTS | 144,782.82699 BTS |
| Longer Symbols | 24,130.47116 BTS | 14,478.28270 BTS |
Sub assets
As you can see above, the cheapest a main asset name costs is currently 14,478 BTS which would be quite costly... if you had to pay that every time 😉
To avoid such a scenario, register a single asset with a title reflecting your collection or gallery (I chose NFTEA), then you'll be able to issue sub-assets!
A sub-asset looks like NFTEA.FIRE it starts with the primary asset name, then is followed by a . then the name of the NFT artwork it contains (FIRE being the artwork within NFTEA.FIRE).
Alright, what's the cost of these sub-assets?
| Standard fee | LTM fee |
|---|---|
| 965.21884 BTS | 193.04377 BTS |
So sub-assets are more than 93% cheaper than registering a non-subasset.
So if you plan on issuing many NFTs on the Bitshares DEX, you should utilize sub-assets to significantly reduce the cost of collection issuance!
Sources of NFT data
Whilst it's possible to store NFT multimedia data on the Bitshares blockchain, it's quite expensive for anything larger than a stamp/avatar.
So I'd highly recommend storing your NFT's underlying data on IPFS; there are multiple pinning services which you can choose from & many of them backup the data further onto filecoin and similar storage blockchains.
The Bitshares NFT issuance tool created by myself only supports IPFS stored NFTs for now; if you want to issue complex on-chain NFTs you'll need to either fork the issuance tool or write a NodeJS/Python script to create the asset directly yourself.
Bear in mind on-chain storage won't work if the contents are greater than the max block/tx size; large files would need to be stored across multiple custom ops and recombined later by clients. Somewhat messier than just using IPFS.
Life time membership
You should definitely consider purchasing a 'Life time membership - LTM' on the Bitshares DEX, it usually costs approx $100 however it affords you significant savings in blockchain fees.
If you're planning on issuing more than a handful of NFTs you should purchase LTM; to do otherwise is burning cash pointlessly.
Claiming fee pools post NFT creation
Once you create your NFT, a good chunk of the fee is placed in the NFT's fee pool.
The fee pool's purpose is to enable trading of the UIA on the DEX without costing the traders funds, an interesting idea for gateways, however when it comes to NFTs let's leave such fees to the collectors/traders.
So, after registering your NFT on the Bitshares blockchain, navigate to its asset page (as shown above), then go to its Asset actions then CLAIM FEE POOL BALANCE then follow the instructions there to reclaim these fees.
By claiming back these fee pool funds, you've further saved yourself money.
Claiming your vesting balances!
LTM users can claim back a large % of the fees over several months after issuing the NFT.
So remember to go back to your Bitshares vesting balances several months after creating your NFTs to collect your remaining reclaimable fees.
With the above tips you will now have the knowledge to cheaply issue NFTs yourself on the Bitshares DEX, huzzah!
If you have any further questions about NFTs on the Bitshares DEX don't hesitate to comment below with your questions!