In 2020, the NFT market grew by 300%, in the first half of 2021, by an impressive 2100%! At the same time, platforms such as Superfarm, OpenSea and Rarible became the main beneficiaries of the popularity of non-interchangeable tokens. These trading platforms make it possible to produce, sell and buy the NFT by taking a small commission from each transaction. Next, we'll tell you how to develop your own NFT-stock, what it takes and how much it costs.

Select the target niche

The first thing you have to decide when you start your NFT trading platform is to pick a niche. This niche can be digital art (most NFT-exchanges work in this niche), video games, licensed software, real estate, investment, or something else that can be traded through the NFT. The niche you selected will largely determine the course of development as it affects the technical requirements, design requirements and functionality of the software being developed.

For example, if you, like most of your competitors, bet on digital fine art (images, videos, GIF, 3d-models), you will essentially need to create a traditional online shop on the blockchain. The difference is that you will not display clothes, smartphones or books in the window, but paintings, pictures, or movies. And you will show these things just like the usual items, using photos, animations, or short videos.

However, if you want to create an NFT-stock for real estate trade, then you need to create a Zillow analogue with the integration of MLS, geotargeting, city and street data, real estate price calculator, etc. So you will need to develop a common market for the chosen Marketplace market with typical functions, capabilities, design and external integrations.

Of course, nothing prevents you from developing the NFT-stock for trading in a row - from a photo to credit derivatives. But in this case, you will need to compete directly with market leaders. It's expensive and risky.

Study the target audience

After having identified your NFT-exchange niche, you will need to study your target audience: Demography, needs, habits, pain, etc. This will help to understand what kind of platform you need to create (functions, design, integration, marketing). For example, you will understand which devices your target audience (smartphones or computers) chooses to use, why they plan to buy NFT and how they feel comfortable doing it.

At the same time, it is best to create a number of users to mark the goals, needs and pain points of several major archetypes of potential users of your trading NFT platform. Their use will enhance empathy for end-users, which will have a beneficial effect as a result.

Define the platform concept

After studying the target audience, you can begin to develop the concept of your site: Technical requirements, design, functional, marketing strategy, monetization and other. It can be done on its own, but it will be better if business analyst, marketing analyst, designer and other professionals who will develop your NFT-stock will also be involved.

The type of the marketplace. Your trading platform can be a mobile or desktop application; a decentralized, centralized or hybrid system; work on the blockchain or use it only to issue tokens. All these things will determine the structure of the NFT trading platform being developed and will also affect the choice of optimal technological stack.

For example, this is what the structure of the digital content platform can look like, which will allow the NFT to acquire and produce native tokens by playing games.

Blockchain and token’s standard. In addition, you will also need to choose which blockchain and the token’s standard to use. In the past, most of the startups chose Ethereum, because it is the second most popular cryptocurrency that was specifically designed to launch applications. But now the situation is changing. Many choose Binance Smart Chain, Hyperledger Fabric, Cardano, Tezos and other chains.

With regard to NFT standards, they may be:

• ERC721. First protocol for non-interchangeable tokens. In fact, it is part of the standard smart-contract of Solidity, so the new ERC721-compatible contracts can be imported from the OpenZeppelin library. However, it is quite simple, providing a comparison of unique identifiers with the address of the owner and the transmission of TransferFrom.
• ERC1155. This protocol is developed by Enjin. It is very similar to ERC721, except in the case of ERC1155, NFT identifiers are not separate assets but their classes, which simplifies the production of numerous single assets. For example, the NFT identifier may be specified as "sword" (i.e. one class of the asset), but there will not be 100 such "swords" in the purse.
• Composables. Derived from ERC998, which allows for the inclusion of both non-interchangeable and interchangeable assets in the NFT.
• dGoods. A protocol based on the EOS blockchain, which was created by Mythical Games specifically for the Gods Unchained card video-game. Its main feature is the creation of cross-linkages with other blockchains, which hypothetically provides protection against duplication and increases liquidity.
• NFT Cosmos. Protocol of non-interchangeable tokens based on the Cosmos network.
• TRC 721. This is an ERC 721 analogue for creating NFT based on the TRON blockchain.
• BEP-721 and BEP-1155. These are ERC721 and ERC1155 analogues for the NFT output at Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

Main functions of the Marketplace. The NFT-stock combines the possibilities of a blockchain, a trading and an auction platform because it allows the production, storage, sale, purchase and exchange of NFT.

Here is a list of its core functions:

• The window. Provides key information on the sale of the tray to visitors of the trading platform. Usually these are name, price, brief description, visual representation (photo, video), owner, class of token (standard, blockchain), ratings and reviews, method of purchase.
• Search engine. It allows you to find the right swamp easily and quickly by using keywords, categories and filters. The division into categories and the list of filters depends on the niche. For example, a stock market that sells art objects can be pictures, photos, memes, videos, animation, 3d-models, video games, music, etc.
• Registration, entry. We need to keep the history of activity, the opportunity to release our NFT, sell and buy them. It is usually realized via email, telephone number, or Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter accounts.
• Create an ad. Implies the production of its own NFT and the creation of a trade proposal. The process itself should ideally resemble the creation of a trade announcement on Ebay. To achieve this, you need to optimize the user's ways and implement something like OpenSea collection manager.
• Trading system. Usually it's something like Ebay: The possibility of buying and selling objects at a fixed price and the possibility of launching an auction.
• The NFTs' purse. For users to store and transmit non-interchangeable tokens, your trading platform needs a purse that supports the cryptocurrency protocols you need. This may be an internal purse, or integration with such wallets as Coinbase Wallet, MyEtherWallet, Metamask, WalletConnect, or other services.
• Bidding history. Usually, the NFT-Marketplace has a section to record the entire trade history of the users that they can view within their account. In addition, a section with a general tendering history can also be implemented on the site where everyone can view the data of the sold lots (name, price, date, counterparty, etc.).
• Reviews and ratings. They help users appreciate the sale of goods, sellers and buyers. Ratings are usually implemented in the form of likes or numerical estimates (from 1 to 5 or %). At the same time, feedback can be made either by everyone or only by counterparties to each other after the transaction has been completed.
• Notifications. They will inform users about important events, such as the sold lot, the new message, the updating of the platform, etc.
• Support. It helps users cope with their problems and give you the opportunity to collect feedback from them. You can do it through the call center, e-mail, or chat-bot.

Monetization of the site. Another thing to decide about how to create the NFT's own trading platform is how to monetize it. The most popular option is a transaction commission and input / output charges. But these aren't the only strategies you can use. For example, you can create some proposals on the basis of subscriptions (listings of the most profitable and prospective tokens, update listing in the chosen category or something).

In addition, you can realize the bonus role of the NFT's symphony domain. This will be helpful if you create an NFT-exchange with a focus on investment, credit, insurance, real estate and other high-pitched niches.

Also, don't forget all the simple commercials.

Start with the development of the NFT-stocks

The trading platform for the production, storage, sale, purchase and transfer of non-interchangeable tokens is a very complex software with high reliability and safety requirements (the main problem of the market). These requirements can only be met through custom development because ready-made solutions (WordPress, clone scripts) tend to contain many errors, have weak optimization, and there is no guarantee that there is no safety "holes" inside them. In addition, ready-made solutions are usually templates, which do not allow distinguishing in the crowd of competitors.

To entrust the development of such a software to the best technical partner with relevant experience and skills, such as Merehead. Our company has been developing various fintech and blockchain projects since 2015, from simple websites to cryptographic exchanges, as well as White Label to launch them. To study our portfolio and learn the terms of cooperation can be found via e-mail [email protected] or phone number +1-206-785-16-88.

Step 1. Business analysis requirements

At this stage, you and your software technical partner are immersed in the details of your project. Together, you assess the concept of your NFT trading platform and assess the technical feasibility of the project and its viability. Business analysts, marketers and leaders of the developers team usually do this.

Here you must clearly define the following things:

• What type of NFT you want to sell to whom and how?
• What type of blockchain and NFT standard are you planning to use?
• How do you mark your NFT-stock amongst similar projects?
• What functions and opportunities will your platform have?
• Other things.

The answers to these questions will largely determine the vector of the entire development process. For example, you will see if you will create your trading platform completely from scratch, or you will be able to use a white label solution. Besides, you'll be able to figure out which blockchain is best for you. So if you're betting on "cheap" NFT and large volumes of sales, you need a high-bandwidth network and low commissions (for example, Binance Smart Chain). If you bet on the "expensive" NFT (real estate, investments), you need the most secure network (for example, Ethereum).

Step 2. Opening phase, planning

Next, you and the developer are starting to develop requirements for design and technical requirements for your NFT trading platform.

Development of design requirements usually implies the creation of:

• UX-strategies.
• The users.
• Users’ stories.
• User's streams.
• Information architecture.
• Warframes' low precision.

When discussing technical requirements, you will need to find a middle ground to meet the needs of users and business as well as for technical capabilities. The outcome of such discussions is usually the following:

• Structure of the overall data flow.
• Architecture of the trading platform.
• Planning the development process.
• Quality assurance principles.
• Technological stack and API.

Step 3. Development of the UX / UI-Design of the NFT-exchange

At this stage, your team of developers deepens in the development of the design of the trading platform. The general design concept, the possibility and ways of his personalization, color scheme, Tone of voice (ToV) and other details are scratched. The result of all this will be the following:

• Wireframing UX. Schematic image of the user interface where the outline of the future interface design (model external appearance, functions, user flows, etc.) is shown. All the complex elements of design (icons, images, animation) and content in the Warframes are not worked out, but are only marked by conditional clusters.
• High-precision mock-ups. Static visualization of the interface design as it will be presented to end-users.
• These are essentially interactive mock-ups, where all icons, animations, videos, and transitions between screens work, but functions do not.

Step 4. Direct coding of the soft

When all the technical characteristics are agreed and the design is created, a team of programmers who sell your stock in a code will start working. Depending on the target platform and process stack, the front-, back-, blockchain and mobile developers can participate in the process.

The technological stack can be that way:

• Blockchain: Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain.
• Token standard: ERC721, ERC1155, BEP-721, BEP-1155.
• Smart-contracts: Ethereum Virtual Machine, BSC Virtual Machine.
• Languages: PHP, JAVA, MEAN Stack, Laravel
• Database: MySQL, MongoDB, Redis.
• LAMP^ Linux Server, Apache, Mysql DB, Php
• Website development: PHP - Laravel / Codeigniter
• MEAN: MongoDB, Express JS, Angular JS, Node JS
• For Android: Java, Kotlin, Node JS, ROR, Laravel.
• For IOS: Swift, Node JS, ROR, Laravel, ткань
• Cloud: AWS, Google Cloud Platform, MS Azure.
• Push-notifications: Twilio, Amazon SNS, MAP.
• Another: RSpec, Phantom JS, PUMA server, PhoneGap, C ++, Xcode.
• Blockchain: depends on the platform chosen.

Step 5. Product testing

At this stage, the baton is accepted by a team of QA specialists. They perform many tests to ensure the reliability and safety of your trading platform. In addition, the usability, functionality and optimization of the platform's operation in all scenarios of its use are also being tested.

Step 6. Output, project deployment

After completion of the testing, you will need to deploy your trading platform on servers / cloud, and add your project to various listings. In addition, a full-fledged promotion of the project using fee-based advertising, SEO, SMM and partner marketing is beginning at this stage.

Step 7. Post-realize Support

Congratulations! Your project is running, but do not think that the process of developing your NFT-exchange is over. You still have a lot of work to do to optimize, improve and, of course, identify and eliminate errors and bugs. To do this, you need to organize a support service, including feedback from users. As a result of this information, you will understand what works the way you need, and that you need to improve, what opportunities do users need, whether additional tips are needed, and so on.

Cost of establishing an NFT-stock

NFT Exchange Platform Development key takeaways:

#1. Select the target niche
#2. Study the target audience
#3. Define the platform concept
#4. Start with the development of the NFT-stocks
#5. Step 1. Business analysis requirements
#6. Step 2. Opening phase, planning
#7. Step 3. Development of the UX / UI-Design of the NFT-exchange
#8. Step 4. Direct coding of the soft
#9. Step 5. Product testing
#10. Step 6. Output, project deployment
#11. Step 7. Post-realize Support
#12. Cost of establishing an NFT-stock