NFTs in the Stellar Ecosystem

Longtime ecosystem participant Litemint started off with Litemint.io, a competitive tradable card game built on Stellar, and its complementary Stellar-powered wallet. However, Litemint has shown the breadth of possibilities on Stellar by launching its own non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, enabling users to mint NFTs on Stellar utilizing the network’s blazing speed and incredibly low transaction fees. The speed and low cost of minting on Stellar has drawn several artists from other blockchains to begin minting their work on Litemint instead.

Laffpro, an artist who started out minting NFTs on Ethereum, pointed out, “Litemint is definitely faster, with almost no minting fees, compared to marketplaces on other chains.” Artist u.NFT.w agreed, saying that the high Ethereum gas fees drove him away from Eth-based platforms as well. Breaking down barriers for artists and creators to share their work with the world and make a living off it is a byproduct of the open-source Stellar network, built to create equitable access to the global financial system.

But Litemint doesn’t just have the upperhand on speed and transaction fees thanks to Stellar; it’s also built with sustainability in mind. Stellar consumes significantly less energy than other blockchains, notably in comparison to proof-of-work consensus protocols such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. That is an important differentiator to Litemint and its users, because if blockchain technologies are to move forward as an integral part of the global economy both in finance and art, they must be environmentally responsible.

New York-based artist Tyler Naugle (also known as Nog on Litemint) reasoned, “The blistering speed and low fees of Stellar cannot be ignored, but Stellar’s drastically lower environmental impact was a huge draw for me. I made one NFT on Ethereum a while back and the sluggish transactions and astronomical fees dissuaded me from making more.”

Litemint’s customer service also drew artists onto the platform. The founder of Litemint and Stellar Community Fund winner, Frederic Kyung-Jin Rezeau, has handled all of the platform’s customer service needs since its launch. As Laffpro noted, “Frederic’s support was impeccable. He taught me a lot of things including how Stellar actually works. I wish everyone was that communicative and kind.”

Frederic supports getting to know the Stellar community as a developer as much as possible and establishing long-lasting relationships. He demonstrates this with Litemint’s strategy to gather quality-of-life feedback from its users. To gain parity with other marketplaces on other chains, Litemint has been working diligently to release new features such as collaborative minting and minting video files, all features directly requested by users. Litemint is also working to integrate card, ACH, and wire payments with USDC on Stellar.

While quite a few artists moved from marketplaces on other chains to Litemint, there are others who minted on Stellar right from the very start. UK-based artist Lady Futuristica said, “I was already a supporter of the Stellar network, so when I realised there was an NFT marketplace on Stellar, I was so happy! I hope to see more established artists from the Ethereum marketplaces come over soon when they realise how efficient and cheap the network is.” Artists like Lady Futuristica exemplify the supportive and inclusive community that makes Stellar thrive.

NFT artist Ink shared his experience with the Litemint community: “[the] Stellar network has always put people and communities first and foremost, and Litemint is no different. I was asked to join because people on the network loved my art and saw something in me. From that day, I have felt like part of a digital family. The devs and artists already on the network welcomed me with open arms.”

All of these qualities have enabled Litemint to bring on hundreds of artists and over three thousand works of art to the Stellar network. The platform is still in beta with a ton of features on the way, so check it out here.

NFTs in the Stellar Ecosystem was originally published in Stellar Community on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.