Minting steps

Go to mirror.xyz/dashboard
Create a new entry or navigate to your entry on the dashboard, click the “more settings” option, and select “Edit”.

Click on the top-right “Publish / Update” button and check off the NFT checkbox. You will need to use Metamask and switch to the Optimism Ethereum network.

Set the price and supply, confirm the values, and hit publish. We recommend setting an accessible price (<0.01 ETH, currently <$20 USD) and abundant supply (>100 units). This way many people can collect your new Writing NFT.

Writing NFT Deep Dive

Price, supply, utility

Pricing your Writing NFT is how you denote the value and scarcity of the work you created. In addition, it helps prevent automated bots from collecting free ones and then trying to squeeze profits from your community on secondary markets.

Unlike most NFTs from the last year, Writing NFTs are on Optimism (an Ethereum L2 Rollup). As a result, gas costs are much lower, ranging between 50 cents and $2.

Because of the low gas cost, you can price items at a lower price point. For example, you could have a Writing NFT priced at $5 or even make it free like a POAP. Lower prices (e.g. less than 0.01 ETH) and high supplies (>1,000) help increase accessibility of the collection. Currently you can set the supply to a maximum of 10,000 units.

Higher prices may be appropriate for works like deeply researched articles and complex fiction. They may also be appropriate if you are pairing the Writing NFT collectable with additional utility. For example, some writers are considering 1:1 discussions, fireside chats, workshops, event tickets, etc.

At the end of the day, you will need to match the price and supply to your community needs and any additional services you’d like to include.

Funds recipient

By default, all funds will be transferred immediately to the Ethereum address that set up the Mirror publication. In other words, to the owner of the Mirror subdomain.

If you would like to change the recipient of the funds, you can adjust the “Funds recipient” in the “Advanced options” section of the Writing NFT before deploying it.

For example, you may want that address to be the author of the specific entry or a public goods address. Please note that this value cannot be changed once the entry is minted.

Funds are received and transferred as oETH (Optimism Ether). If you would like to convert them back to ETH (mainnet Ether), you can use Optimism’s bridge here.

Currently, Writing NFTs currently do not support Mirror Splits as a fund recipient. If you are planning on sending funds to a multisig safe, please make sure the safe is an address on the Optimism network. Gitcoin recommends using their Optimism multi-sig address if you want to donate the NFT proceeds to public goods.

Additional questions

My entry was already made a Mirror Entry Edition, can I mint is as a Writing NFT?

If you had published an entry as an Mirror Entry Edition NFT, you will need to re-create the entry.

The new Writing NFT functionality is not available for previously minted entries. As a result, you would need to create a new entry from the dashboard, and then mark it as an NFT again. If you have any challenges, please reach out to the team.

How much does it cost to make my entry a Writing NFT?

It costs nothing. Writing NFTs are free to create and don’t require gas.

How do I set secondary sale royalties?

Currently there’s no user setting on Mirror to adjust the royalties. However, you can visit the contract on Optimistic Etherscan (https://optimistic.etherscan.io/) after the first collection and adjust the setRoyaltyInfo value on the contract.

In the section, you will need to input two settings. First, the Ethereum address of the recipient—make sure it’s an address compatible with Optimism, like an Ethereum EOA address. Then, add the royalty setting in basis points. In other words, input 1000 for 10%, 500 for 5%, or 100 for 1%.

How can I set the payment address to a split?

Splits are not deployed on Optimism at the moment.

What does the ‘Symbol’ advanced setting mean?

The symbol is a piece of data used in the ERC721 standard. It is the name of the contract that shows up in the collector’s wallet. The symbol doesn’t need to be unique. We recommend using an abbreviation of the entry title.

Can I mint a Writing NFT for myself?

Yes, as the owner you can mint for free. However, you will need to do this from the contract directly. This can be accessed through the Etherscan interface using the ‘mint’ function.