As part of my ongoing adventure in crypto, I decided to do something I have never done before. I minted an NFT on OpenSea.
I was NOT expecting what happened next.
Before anyone starts typing a response, my entire motivation for minting an NFT was education. This is how I learn, I try things and find out. There at no point in time was a profit motive.
Hive Engine
When I started researching the NFT side of things, it was while learning about Smart Contracts on Etherium.
I have pointed out several times that the best thing about ETH is the tech and the worst thing about ETH is the super pricey gas fees. It's just a really inefficient system and won't improve until the much, much-delayed ETH2.
So being a fan of Hive, I of course looked at Hive Engine.
What surprised me is it turns out Hive Engine has its own equivalent fee. Before you can play with the tech you need to buy 100 BEE or ENG or whatever. Plus you can't just buy some BEEs, you have to trade them. I don't have enough liquid HIVE/HBD, so I moved along to other blockchains.
After that BEE purchase it is really quite involved from a developer's point of view, but also some things are not quite here yet. Makes sense how there is really only 
$DESO
DeSo is the easiest and cheapest of the lot. No code, no fees (there are but not so you would notice). All you do is put up a post and say you want it to be an NFT. Done!
There is also a nice API behind DeSo, it is where the DeSo organisation is putting most of their energy and resources - it's a platform not a product. Much like Hive, they expect the apps to be where the action is while the org handles the infrastructure.
The problem with DeSo is the community is tiny and for the full experience, you at least want the potential for someone to buy your NFT from a marketplace. I did not and do not expect anyone to buy it, but for my DeSo experiments in NFTs, all my "art" will be generated and gifted to coin holders.
Foundation
My buddy Rafal has sold his art on Foundation so I asked for an invite.
It's a really nice service as it turns out, but
99.9% of my ETH went into Steem back when Steem was $6. I don't have enough.
OpenSea
Yes, OpenSea is the king of NFT marketplaces using ETH, but you don't have to:
Gas-free is exactly what I needed!
It's a very simple process to upload your image, set some form fields, and boom you have your minted NFT.
There is something to be said for Dapps that put thought into UX and design.
So what happened next
I mentioned on Twitter that I had made an NFT - emphasizing that I did it to learn - and you would have thought I had admitted to a heinous crime.
Apparently, I am responsible for the destruction of the planet and I am also as bad as Bernie Madoff.
This is because I minted one NFT at a price of ~$29 USD.
History repeats
Back when I started out teaching about online writing/blogging around the turn of the century, there was a very strong "information wants to be free" sentiment. I get it, I don't buy into it, but I get it. At the same time, however, writers complained then as they do now that they are not valued enough.
So we experimented with "monetization" such as ads and things.
People got PISSED.
How DARE you want to earn a living from writing, with ugly ads no less!
Blog owners tried all kinds of things, and it was never right.
Over time the audience matured, bloggers matured, and we all kind of got used to things.
Ads are annoying, but remember the audience had an opportunity to ... pay writers! This is what happens when you expect free content and writers don't want to live in a box under a bridge.
If we want art, if we want people to create, we need to find a way for the artist to be compensated. Otherwise only the already rich or otherwise financially supported will be able to afford to create art, and much of the art we actually enjoy and even treasure will go away.
This isn't theory, history repeats.
So what now?
I have no interest in catching more rotten tomatoes or getting an arrow in my knee so I am going to do my experiments inside of communities that are ok with this stuff. No more sharing on the Twitters!