NFT Storage
Filetypes
There is no limitation of types, but to follow the standard for NFTs (CIP-0025) you need to have at least 1 image (jpg/png/gif). This is usually the one you will see as a thumb in sites like jpg.store or pool.pm. https://github.com/cardano-foundation/CIPs/blob/master/CIP-0025/README.md
On-Chain vs Off-Chain
In Cardano, the biggest size of 1 single transaction is 16KB, so that means that you need to keep some space for the rest of the information that the transaction needs to be executed.
A rule could be, If the size in bytes of the pieces of art you generate is > 12K, you need to go storage off-chain. We will go deeper into the UTxOs explanation.
On-Chain
All the metadata for the NFT is stored in the transaction in the NFT is minted in.
That means the NFT will always live as long as the blockchain is stored on lives!
Pros:
Will be there forever! 🙏
Cons:
You are super limited with the type of art you can create
Off-Chain / IPFS
If you talk about Off-Chain storage, you talk about IPFS (InterPlanetary File System).
IPFS is a distributed system for storing and accessing files.
Project using IPFS the image is not stored in the blockchain, a hash reference to the image is stored instead.
There are many IPFS providers (NFT.Storage, Pinata, Blockfrost)
Pros:
You have no limitations on your collection. Your creativity is the limit.
Cons:
You need to pay to pin images (There are free services like NFT.Storage but with limitations)
Improvable, but IPFS could not be online or a standard in the future
Upload
When you have a 10K collection, probably you are talking about 10~20 Gigas of data or more to upload.
In Clay Invaders, we use a lib to upload them that works like a charm (we are using Pinata) https://github.com/clayinvaders/pinata-ipfs-scripts-for-nft-projects
Once you upload all your files, you need to replace all the metadata files with the new ipfs hashes (Thumb and full size). This is the code we use for it:
So if you have the art generated but don't know how to upload them to IPFS, take a look and feel free to ping us!
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