Rarible introduces zero-cost NFT minting feature

Nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Rarible has introduced a new functionality titled “lazy minting” that promises users the ability to create nonfungible tokens at zero cost — all while enhancing environmental sustainability on the platform.

Instead of the traditional method whereby data is stored on the blockchain immediately after minting, Rarible announced Monday that, under its new program, NFTs are “minted not at the moment of creation, but at the moment of purchase. It’s the buyer who pays the gas fees when purchasing the item.” In this case, data will be stored on a decentralized peer-to-peer storage system called IPFS.

Amid the influx of new retail participants into the NFT space over the past year, a large segment has been perturbed by the consistently high gas fees on the Ethereum network, increasing their barrier-to-entry and diverting many investors to alternative blockchains, such as Solana.

According to data from Rarible Analytics, the current average gas price on Rarible for minting a single ERC-721 token is 0.022ETH, equivalent to $82.26 at current prices. This is actually a favorable time to mint on the platform, in comparison to frequent times of high network activity where gas fees can soar to hundreds of dollars.

This is why the Rarible implementation will be welcomed as a positive initiative by the community, though it is yet unknown as to its potential impact on the wider market.

Related: Rarible’s daily transactions see a rapid decline

Popular cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase, FTX and Binance have been among the latest iteration of crypto firms expressing intent to build products and services in the NFT space. Coinbase garnered enormous social attention for the upcoming launch of its NFT marketplace, registering 1.1 million email signups in the first 24 hours. One week on, this figure is now 2.35 million.

To add greater context to this figure, leading NFT marketplace OpenSea has recorded a little over 263,000 unique users across the last 30-days, in addition to in excess of $3 billion in total volume.

Coinbase recorded 68 million verified users and 8.8 million monthly active users across the second quarter of 2021, according to its latest shareholder report.

Analytics data from DappRadar reveals that Rarible has recorded 10,100 unique users over a 30-day period, RARI, the platform’s native token, has experienced positive growth over the past month, rising 80% from one year lows in late September to the current value of around $22.20.