Welcome to the new era of NFTs—where both the art and its authenticity live together on-chain. If you’re an artist or a collector interested in the permanence of digital art, understanding the difference between on-chain and off-chain storage is crucial. The Save The World With Art™ platform aims to simplify the process of minting on-chain NFTs while ensuring your art stays alive for as long as the Tezos blockchain exists.
On-Chain vs. Off-Chain Storage: The Key Differences 🔗⛓️💥
When it comes to NFTs, there are two primary methods for storing digital art: on-chain and off-chain. Both have caveats, both have challenges, one is not necessarily better than the other, but... Off-chain solutions like IPFS or Arweave store the artwork itself externally, while only a link to the file resides in the smart contract's metadata. This link is essentially a dependency—if the service hosting the link goes down, the artwork could disappear, potentially leaving broken image links and incomplete NFTs.
On-chain storage, however, embeds the artwork directly into the smart contract’s storage on the blockchain. This makes your art theoretically immutable as long as the Tezos blockchain exists. No other party is required to keep your images alive, and the provenance of the artwork—its entire history—resides in one place. The downside? On-chain storage is more expensive, and you face practical limitations such as a maximum of around 20KB for an image on Tezos. But for those seeking true permanence, these limitations are a fun challenge.
Why On-Chain NFTs Matter 🔗
The ability to store art and its “provenance”—the record of authenticity and history—in the same place is an undeniable advantage of on-chain NFTs. On Save The World With Art™, your NFTs do not depend on any centralized server or third-party service to keep their metadata alive. Once an artwork is minted on-chain, it lives in the smart contract's big_map storage forever, accessible to anyone who interacts with it.
This isn't just about minting; it's about pushing the boundaries of what we can achieve in the blockchain art world. Artists gain full control over their art, as smart contracts are tied directly to the wallet that deployed them. Unlike traditional platforms, there is no middleman here—your art is always in your hands.
How to Mint On-Chain Art Using Save The World With Art™
To simplify the process of minting fully on-chain, Save The World With Art™ uses the #ZeroContract developed by @JestemZero. Our platform is designed to eliminate the complexity of deploying smart contracts, handling hex conversions, or using tools like Better-Call.dev, which are not user-friendly for artists without coding experience.
With our platform, artists can create, deploy, and mint directly on Tezos—no coding required. Whether you're on the mainnet at savetheworldwithart.io or testing your work on Ghostnet at ghostnet.savetheworldwithart.io, you have all the tools you need to mint fully on-chain NFTs.
Key Features of #ZeroContract Version 1 and 2:
ZeroContract v1: Supports one-of-one (1/1) NFTs and includes functionalities like minting, burning, transferring, and updating operators, compatible with OBJKT.
ZeroContract v2: Adds support for editioned artworks (up to 10,000 editions), as well as parent-child interactions, making it compatible with marketplaces like OBJKT.
Testing Is Key—Use Ghostnet First
One of the major advantages of using Save The World With Art™ is the ability to test your contracts on Ghostnet, Tezos' test network. Deploying a contract on Tezos is permanent—meaning it cannot be altered or burned after it has been deployed. That's why it's always better to test things out on Ghostnet first to make sure everything is compatible with platforms like OBJKT.com.
The Cost of On-Chain Art—And Why It’s Worth It
Artworks above, in order "All You Can Eat", "Parched", "Humanity For Sale"
Minting art fully on-chain costs more than off-chain solutions because you're storing the entire artwork on the blockchain. Recently, I minted an almost 5KB artwork for around 3 tez—a higher cost compared to off-chain minting but still far cheaper than minting on-chain on other blockchains. The premium for on-chain art lies in its permanence and the complexity involved. Recently, I auctioned two on-chain pieces for 100 and 150 tez respectively, which also trended on the front page of OBJKT.com—showing the demand for these highly technical, immutable artworks.
Live ArtPrize Competition—Showcase Your On-Chain Art
We're also hosting our 9th Save The World With Art™ ArtPrize competition, with the biggest prizes we've ever offered! This is the perfect opportunity for artists to experiment with minting fully on-chain on Tezos and listing their artworks on OBJKT. The competition runs at artprize.savetheworldwithart.io, encouraging artists to explore the new frontier of digital permanence.
Tools to Help You Mint On-Chain Art 🔨🔍✂️🔫
Creating a small enough image for on-chain minting can be challenging, as Tezos allows a maximum size of roughly 20KB for on-chain images. To help with this, I’ve created compression tools at jams2blues.art/w3tools, available across desktop, Android, and iOS, to make on-chain compatibility easier. You can use these tools to optimize your art for Tezos and ensure smooth minting. I also created a YouTube video showing how these tools work, along with other free web-based compression tools. You can watch it here: YouTube Explainer Video.
The Future of On-Chain Art 🔮
On-chain art is all about reducing dependencies. While IPFS is a useful, scalable solution, it still introduces another layer—someone must keep the images “pinned” on a server for them to be accessible. With on-chain art, the blockchain itself holds the artwork, maximizing permanence. This does come with its own set of limitations—smaller file sizes and higher gas costs—but the potential reward is immense: your art living on, independent of centralized services.
Shoutouts and Acknowledgements 📢
None of this would be possible without the community that has been shaping the on-chain frontier. Special thanks to @JestemZero for creating the original #ZeroContract, which made our no-code deployment and minting platform possible, and @RetroManni for his deep-dive video on Better-Call.dev, which laid the foundation for simplifying complex smart contract interactions. Their contributions have made it possible for artists to explore new creative realms with less technical friction.
Ready to Mint On-Chain? Start Today. 🔗
Minting on-chain might seem daunting at first, but with platforms like Save The World With Art™, we're making it accessible to everyone—no coding skills required. Test your ideas, make your mistakes on Ghostnet, and join us in redefining the way digital art lives, sells, and persists on the blockchain.
Start minting today at savetheworldwithart.io. And don't forget to join the ArtPrize competition to see just how high on-chain art can soar!
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