You aren’t going to enjoy the RECUR/Paramount.xyz experience — and you won’t be able to afford it, either. I went through the process to make a Star Trek NFT profile picture, one recognized by Twitter, and I did it for a fraction of the price and I got exactly what I wanted. Here’s how you can do the same.
There may be some folks out there who haven’t yet heard about the Star Trek NFTs, so briefly:
For a 24 hour period on April 9th — tomorrow as I write this — NFT fans will be able to buy mystery boxes containing a random starship in the style of Star Trek ships, randomized so that no two exactly resemble either each other, or any ship actually seen in any movie or series. Some may have short nacelles, or longer ones, or different shaped saucers, or weird stuff.
From the cheap pack — the US$250 pack — you have about a 10% chance of getting a Constitution or Constitution (refit) ship. That’s the class used in the original series and some of the movies.
If you really want a chance at getting a Constitution or Constitution (refit), you’ll need to buy the pack reserved for pass holders. Pass holders are those that own a RECUR Pass NFT, and those are going for US$390+ as of this writing. It was $100 earlier, but the price has been rising. As I write this, if you want a 100% chance to open a random mystery box and find a picture of a Constitution class starship inside — that will set you back US$640.
What can you do with it? According to the terms and conditions, you can sell it (and the RECUR Pass NFT, if you have one), use it as your Profile Picture (PFP), and share links to it so that people can view it in your RECUR page. Unlike the Wax.io marketplace where Atari sells their NFTs, you can even transfer the NFT to a public blockchain, at which point what you do with it is up to you, subject to the agreement not to commercialize it or modify it in any way. (Few NFTs give you those rights; Bored Ape Yacht Club is one of the few that do).
Season 0 of the Star Trek NFTs gets you a weird looking ship and makes you eligible for Season 1 — paying hundreds of dollars for crew for that ship. Which gets you eligible for Season 2 — going on missions with your ship and crew. And then you can try out Season 3 — collecting planets and star systems. Expect to be out thousands of dollars by the time the final season rolls around. Sure, you can sell the stuff when you’re done. Maybe.
But all this stuff EXISTS already. You can just play Star Trek Online. You can make whatever captain you like, customize your starship however you like and even get a collection of them, collect and customize crew, even make your own starbase. It’s even Free to Play. You can get everything Star Trek NFTs will ever give you, for free, right now. Except that it won’t be an NFT.
So, let’s make it an NFT. For free. There will be a slight fee if you want to do as I’ve done and get the special Twitter branding showing that your profile picture is an NFT (the hexagonal frame). But just getting an NFT is free.
Step 1 — Getting an Ethereum Wallet
If you don’t already have an Ethereum wallet, you can use one of any number of wallet providers. I use one of the most popular, Metamask. You can download it to your phone or computer or use the Chrome extension. You will get a long series of words — your recovery phrase. Whoever has that phrase, has your wallet and can do anything they want with the contents. Metamask also requires a password, and on my phone at least, two factor authentication. The long string of numbers and letters starting with 0x is your public wallet address. Save all this stuff somewhere secure.
You do NOT have to have any Ethereum in the wallet. Not yet, at least.
Step 2 — Create an OpenSea.io account
OpenSea is the foremost NFT marketplace, though there are others. OpenSea allows you to create NFTs for free. OpenSea will ask you for your wallet provider — you’ll need to allow it access to Metamask.
Step 3 — Create the NFT
Find what picture you want for your NFT. It doesn’t have to be Star Trek, it can be anything. It doesn’t even have to be a picture. In OpenSea, choose Create from the menu, drag your picture into the box, name it and hit create and you’re done. Grats. No money changed hands.
At this point, though, the NFT is not “on the chain”. This is the “lazy mint”. You can list this for sale, and people can see it, but it won’t be actually on the Ethereum blockchain until it is transferred to another wallet.
If all you want is a Star Trek NFT that you can show people, you’re done and it cost you nothing and you can make as many as you like. For free. If you want, you can even store the image in some other place that someone could get to with a URL so that even if OpenSea.io somehow loses the NFT, you still have it somewhere.
You want this as your Twitter avatar? Well, this will cost you. A little.
Step 4 — Buy some Ethereum
Unfortunately, crypto was always going to intersect with NFTs at some point. I would never suggest someone invest money in crypto. I regret the money I lost in it, but I have written it off at this point and don’t feel any anxiety about using what I have for stuff like this.
I use Coinbase for my crypto exchange. There’s a bunch of others. I haven’t used them. They might be better. You will need enough Ethereum to pay for gas fees.
What are gas fees?
A gas fee is the fee miners charge in order to process your transaction onto the block chain. This fee goes up in times of high demand and down in times of low demand. Every transaction needs to have sufficient gas in the wallet in order to ensure a miner picks up the transaction and processes it. Gas fees can range from a few bucks to US$75 or more, and vary from moment to moment. You can try to estimate it with third party sites like Ethereum Gas Station.
Once your exchange has verified your money and authorized the Ethereum you bought to be transferred (which can take a day or two if you don’t use direct transfer), you can send it to your wallet. Coinbase charged me a nominal fee when I did it — some small fraction of an Ethereum.
Step 5 — Make another Ethereum Wallet
Metamask will make another wallet for you, if you ask. Why? Because in order for Twitter to see your NFT, it needs to be fully on the block chain. Which means you are going to need to transfer it from your first wallet into your second wallet.
Step 6 — Have OpenSea transfer your NFT
Just select the NFT, select the transfer icon, and paste in the address of your new wallet. Metamask will take it from there. You will be charged gas fees at this point.
After a minute or two, the transfer will complete and your NFT will be on the chain.
Step 7 — Twitter Blue
Your garden variety Twitter account won’t display NFT profile pictures. You will need to sign up for Twitter Blue, AND be using the Twitter client on an iOS phone — an iPhone. I think they may have this for Android, but I’m not sure. It isn’t working on the web client.
Once you have subscribed to Twitter Blue and bought yourself an iPhone, edit your profile, click on your profile picture, and choose Set to NFT. It will bring up Metamask, choose your NFT wallet, select it, and you’re done. That’s it.
That’s it.
So, is there a reason to do this? No, not really. You can just take a picture, any picture, crop it in a paint program, and set it as your profile picture for free. You won’t get the hexagonal avatar frame, but did I mention free?
Making an NFT from a Star Trek Online screen shot is no more disallowed than just setting your profile picture to a screenshot directly, for free. Which is to say, neither of those things are allowed. Buying a real Star Trek NFT DOES allow you to display and sell them, so if that’s important to you — well, I hope you haven’t missed you chance to get in on the minting. If you have, you’ll have to buy them in the open marketplace, and good luck with that. Wait a year and they will be worthless.
NFTs are kind of a scam.
But I’m doing it so that you don’t have to.
I actually really liked my previous PFP, which is not an NFT, because the author of the program I used to make it specified they couldn’t be made into NFTs. I’ve respected that.
I’ve spent months keeping an open mind with crypto and NFTs, because I don’t want to just dismiss them out of hand. But dammit, they make it really hard to like them.
