How to develop an NFT marketplace on Solana?

Although NFTs may seem like a passing trend, they are emerging as an important asset class. According to The Guardian, the NFT market rose from $100 Million in 2020 to $22 Billion in 2021. This clearly points at the rapidly growing popularity of NFTs among both creators and collectors across the globe.

Individual creators as well as firms from many industries, including music, entertainment and consumer products industries, have been actively looking at ways to capitalize on the growing NFT trend. Whereas some sellers have discovered that working with third-party platforms is cost-effective and offers easy access to existing customers, many love the latitude and control that come with owning an NFT marketplace.

Although numerous blockchains facilitate the development of NFT marketplaces, this insight gives you reasons to build yours on Solana. It also offers a step-by-step guide on how to create your first NFT marketplace on this open-source blockchain. However, before we take you through the Solana NFT development guide, here are some NFT and Solana fundamentals to build your understanding on.

• What is an NFT marketplace?
• The top features of an NFT marketplace
• What is Solana, and why should you develop your NFT marketplace on Solana?
• How to create an NFT marketplace on Solana?

What is an NFT marketplace?

NFT marketplaces are similar to e-commerce platforms in that they both allow for the trading of goods. The only difference is that whereas e-commerce platforms deal in tangible goods, NFT marketplaces deal in digital assets, also known as NFTs. Thus, NFT marketplaces serve a very specific purpose: facilitating buying, selling, and trading of digital collectibles and assets.

To make sure users do not face any obstacles in the trading of NFTs, NFT marketplace developers incorporate certain globally accepted and recommended features into the NFT marketplaces they create.

The top features of an NFT marketplace

Crypto Wallet

Every NFT transaction must be accomplished through a crypto wallet. That is why a crypto wallet may be considered one of the most important components of an NFT marketplace. For seamless transactions, the user must be able to sync their crypto wallet with the NFT Marketplace. Metamask and Coinbase are some of the most popular NFT wallets known today.

Shop window

NFTs that are listed on a marketplace must include all relevant information, starting from their price, owner, and description to the preferred payment method. NFT marketplaces with a shop window will have greater chances of triggering sales.

A streamlined process of registration

A robust search engine should be available for the NFT marketplace. This will allow users to quickly search for NFTs related to music, videos, or photography. The search algorithm must be able to detect the intent and purpose of the user and present correct information in real time.

A search feature

NFT marketplaces should be able to record, store, and display all user history. This includes trading data and transaction history in addition to NFTs approved, purchased, and sold. This feature requires comprehensive user management to be enabled on the platform.

User history

NFT marketplaces should be able to record, store, and display all user history. This includes trading data, transaction history in addition to NFTs approved, purchased, and sold. This feature requires comprehensive user management to be enabled on the platform.

Alerts

Based on the user’s transaction and search history, the NFT marketplace should be capable of sending alerts and notifications to users. If a new NFT is listed, the user should be able to receive an instant notification so that they can decide on their next action.

Support

NFT marketplaces should include a comprehensive customer support system via chat/live call or a knowledge center to ensure that all user queries are properly answered.

Having the above components will make sure your NFT marketplace offers a seamless NFT trading experience to your users. Now that you have gained an insight into the structure and working of NFT marketplaces, let us discuss why Solana should be your preferred platform for the development of NFT marketplaces.

What is Solana, and why should you develop your NFT marketplace on Solana?

Solana, an open-source blockchain network, features the revolutionary PoH consensus model that speeds up transactions. The network is designed to host decentralized and scalable applications. It is faster than many legacy blockchains such as Ethereum in terms of transaction processing speed, and it charges significantly less gas fees. Entrepreneurs, investors, and content creators are all flocking toward Solana not just to create NFTs but also to build marketplaces for facilitating NFT trading. Additionally, the Solana NFT standard and minting provisions allow creators to be as flexible as they want to be. Let us look at some of the benefits a Solana NFT marketplace can bring to your business.

Transactions per second

The Solana blockchain can process approximately 2500 transactions per second. This points at its incredibly impressive speed, which allows transactions to be completed instantly on any NFT marketplace. TPS is, however, a volatile metric that keeps changing.

Cost per transaction

Solana is the ideal platform for creating NFTs and NFT marketplaces of various sizes, thanks to its high throughput and low transaction fees of $0.00025.

No mempool issue

Solana suffers no mempool issue. Mempool refers to the area in which processed transactions wait before being accepted. Instant transactions are possible on Solana NFT marketplaces because of this feature.

An expanding environment

The Solana ecosystem continues to grow, which allows for the handling of multiple dApps, smart contracts, and coins without network congestion.

Programming is a breeze

Solana’s blockchain uses Rust software, which makes it easier to program and create diverse applications. Solana is a flexible platform for building NFT marketplaces, dApps, and other solutions.

How to create an NFT marketplace on Solana?

Creating and funding an SOL wallet

To develop an NFT marketplace, you will first need to create a browser wallet. Because Solana supports a range of browser wallets, you can create one using any compatible platform of your choice. Once it is created, fund your wallet with SOL tokens.

Forking and cloning the Metaplex repository

Fork the Metaplex repository to your Github account, so that it can easily be hosted on Github pages. Next, copy all of the Metaplex files onto your system.

• Create a desktop folder and name it “myNftMarketplace”
• Next, copy the folder’s location.
• Change directory to the folder in the command line

cd /Users/yourusername/Desktop/myNftMarketplace

Now, clone the repository onto the folder you have created

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/metaplex.git

Taking the above actions will help you set up a repository in your own Github account by cloning all the Metaplex repository files to your folder.

Changing the deployment Github address

The following steps help you get your marketplace live online.

• First, you will need to change the deployment address to your Github username.
• Next, change the wallet address of your store.

This is where the public address of your browser wallet needs to be added, so as tell the store who to give administrative access to.

Setting up and deploying the NFT marketplace

This is the last stage before your Solana marketplace for NFT goes live! Here are the steps that you need to follow:

In the command line, change the directory to the js folder.

cd metaplex/js

Now, you will need to install all of the dependencies, for which you will have to run this command

yarn

This command is to download the dependencies needed for working with the code. The packages were not downloaded when you cloned the Metaplex repository, you only received the code that specifies what packages/dependencies you will require.

It takes a moment for all the downloads to take place. Upon completion, the command will give the output Done at the end.

In order to check whether all the dependencies are working properly, you need to run the following command:

yarn bootstrap

You can now locally test your NFT marketplace before it gest uploaded to Github Pages.

For checking that the dependencies are in place and serving their purpose, you need to run this command:

yarn start

The complete compilation might take several minutes. When the compilation is over, the terminal says “Compiled successfully.” Now, you just need to visit localhost:3000/#/ to check the newly set-up NFT marketplace! The next step involves taking the marketplace live for connecting it with a wallet and for minting NFTs.

Build the project files with this command:

yarn build

Upon completion, you receive the output “Done.” You can now see the build folder that got generated inside the js folder.

Change directory to the web folder

cd packages/web

Deployment involves running the undermentioned command while inside the packages/web folder:

yarn deploy

Upon completion, you will again see the output “Done,” which suggests that the deployment was successful. The above command deploys the marketplace site to your Github repository. This means, your marketplace is finally live. You can now go and see your NFT marketplace on Solana blockchain, hosted on Github Pages. 

Endnote

NFT has witnessed an increase in both awareness and popularity in the past some time. The global volume of transactions involving NFTs is growing unabated with each passing year.

NFTs’ rapidly growing popularity and unprecedented valuations have rendered NFT marketplace development a promising investment opportunity. Those who recognize NFTs’ potential want to tap into it. That is why we have more people now than ever before willing to build NFT marketplaces.

However, having an NFT marketplace is not enough, you need quality to attract sellers and buyers. Your choice of a blockchain to develop your NFT marketplace should be well thought out. If you are looking to build a feature-packed NFT marketplace with great scalability, then opting for Solana would be the best bet. The reason Solana is a highly sought-after blockchain platform for NFT marketplace development is because its smart architecture design allows it to offer both quality and affordability.

If you are looking to launch a robust NFT marketplace and are in search of expert developers to handle your project, then contact us right away. Our NFT marketplace developers have the right expertise to help you get started on your journey towards dominating the growing NFT market.