How to Setup Your Wallet
How to Create an Ethereum Wallet Address
If you are not familiar with purchasing blockchain based art, don’t worry, we have made it very easy and you should be able to place your order with just a credit card. We will only need your help in setting up a destination to ship your artwork, which comes in the form of an Ethereum wallet address. You will need an Ethereum wallet to hold your digital artworks (ex. Frank Stella’s Geometries, Siebren Versteeg’s Moments), such as MetaMask or Fortmatic wallets.
Available as an extension for Google Chrome or a Mobile app on iPhone or Android devices, Metamask wallet is one of the most trusted Ethereum wallets.
After setting up your Metamask wallet, save or write down your seed phrase some place safe!!! If you lose your SEED phrase, all art in the wallet would be lost.
If you prefer to have an Ethereum wallet that is accessible through any browser and tied to your phone number or email account, Fortmatic wallet is a safe choice.
Access to Fortmatic wallet can always be reset as long as you retain access to its linked phone number or email account.
How to Retrieve your Ethereum Wallet Address
You are almost there! The address of your Ethereum wallet should be easily accessible on the Arsnl.art website.
Step 1: On this website, press Index, then select the type of wallet you created (Metamask or Fortmatic).
Step 2a: If you selected Metamask, sign the popup message of an extension in Google Chrome or open arsnl.art in the browser of the Metamask app.
Step 2b: If you selected Fortmatic, login / sign message in the wallet widget.
Step 3: Click on your profile
Step 4: You should see your address under the wallet field. Please click the icon to the right of the wallet address to copy it. You can paste the result into a body of any email message or when someone asks you for an address to transfer your Arsnl NFT. Enjoy!
Blockchain 101
Blockchain is a shared ledger of transactions, assets, and even interactive logic. The information on the blockchain is secured by a combination of encryption and consensus.. While virtual money, like Bitcoin, use the blockchain as a way to track their movement and balances, crypto currencies are just one of many uses for this technology. Artists have been using the blockchain in recent years to store digital art (NFTs) records, embed royalties on their works, and create a variety of interactive experiences. Blockchain provides an opprunity for artsits to create digital works that are scarce and traceable. The technology is also used as a tool for a variety of artistic experiences. Arsnl plans to release its initial projects on the Ethereum blockchain, however we are open to support artists that create blockchain based artworks on other blockchains, such as Tezos and Solana.
A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is not the artwork itself, rather it is a record on the blockchain that serves as a digital certificate of ownership for any linked digital asset, i.e. the artwork. NFTs are useful for establishing scarcity and tracking the ownership of artworks. Generally NFTs will contain metadata with links, descriptions, and titles to the underlying artworks.
It is possible to purchase an NFT using either your credit card or cryptocurrency. Please note that in order to receive an NFT, you will need to have a blockchain wallet and any secondary market transactions on the blockchain will require crypto.
A blockchain wallet is a digital wallet that allows collectors to store and manage their crypto assets (ex. NFTs) as well as cryptocurrencies (ex. Ether). The most popular digital wallet on the Ethereum blockchain is MetaMask, which can be installed on your mobile device or as an extension to your Google Chrome browser. Please note that access to this wallet is secured by a 64 character private key or a 12 word seed phrase, which cannot be changed or restored.
Cryptocurrency can be purchased on registered exchanges, such as Coinbase, and transfered into your blockchain wallet.
On Ethereum blockchain, gas refers to transaction costs to perform any operation, such as purchasing, transfering, or creating an NFT.
The blockchain can help artists establish scarcity, ownership, and partial provenance for digital based artworks, something that was extremely difficult to manage in the past. Furthermore, embedded features such as royalty payments enable artists to benefit from recurring revenue from the secondary market. Common standards make blockchain based artworks easier to acquire for collectors and open up a much larger secondary market for these works. It also allows for entire communities of collectors to interact with one another through art.
You can access your account with your blockchain wallet. Obtaining a wallet allows for access not just to Arsnl, but to any Ethereum based platform, artist's website, or an NFT exchange such as OpenSea.
The NFT is not the artwork itself. It’s a piece of code that includes metadata of where to find the artwork, who owns it, and the value of the artwork. It also provides proof of ownership. On top of that, NFTs can be interacted with and viewed in ways that transcend the capabilities of traditional media.
While the NFT itself is assigned to a blockchain wallet and can be found there, Arsnl stores its digital artworks in IPFS, a distributed file system. The use of IPFS limits the reliance of the NFT owner to any platform or server, since the file is likely to be distributed on multiple servers at the same time.
NFT exchanges, such as OpenSea / Rarible / Nifty Gateway / Sansa, allow for an easy way to trade or gift your NFTs by accessing these exchanges with your blockchain wallet that holds your artworks. Please note that any transaction on the blockchain will incur a small transaction cost (gas).