What is Drops?
— A new way to create.
— A new tool to explore.
— A new game to play.
Drops is a new way to create and collect on Foundation. Creators deploy a smart contract that represents their drop, and collectors can mint NFTs from the drop page.
What's the difference between a drop and a collection?
Some key differences include:
Gas Fees
With Collections, creators mint each individual NFT and therefore pay the associated gas fees. This can be cost prohibitive when a creator wants to mint and list all pieces of a larger collection all at once. With Drops, creators simply pay the gas fees to deploy a contract, and collectors pay the gas fees to mint each individual NFT. Drops is a significantly more gas efficient and cost effective way for creators to launch large projects. You can create a drop of up to 10,000 NFTs with the same amount of gas it takes to mint a single NFT.
Fixed Collection Size
With Collections, creators can keep adding to the collection over time, which is great for on-going projects. With Drops, the collection is fixed at the beginning of the project, creators won’t be able to segment their drop or add NFTs to the collection later. For collectors, minting an NFT from a fixed-size collection can be a selling point, because they have complete certainty that the collection size is locked in place forever, giving them confidence that it won’t be expanded in the future.
Static Pricing
With Collections, creators can price each NFT within the collection uniquely, as well as sell them on our marketplace via Reserve Auctions, Buy Now, or Offers. With Drops, creators set a fixed price, and collectors pay that fixed price to mint a randomized selection of NFTs from the drop. Once the NFTs are minted from Drops, collectors can also resell them in our secondary market via Reserve Auctions, Buy Now, or Offers.
Contracts
Drops are ERC-721 contracts. Both Collections and Drops are creator-owned ERC-721 contracts. Drops is not intended for the use of Editions.
Reveals and Randomization
With Collections, a collector can see all available NFTs and select a specific NFT to buy. With Drops, a creator uploads a pre-reveal image that is used initially for all NFTs in the drop; this means that you won't immediately see the final artwork during the pre-reveal step. After they've opened the drop for minting, the creator "reveals" the Drop when they’re ready, creating a magical moment for collectors. During the reveal process, the assets are randomized. This helps ensure that everyone in the drop has an equal opportunity to receive something special!
Packs
Packs are a new way for collectors to mint one, three, or five NFTs in just one transaction! You can list a few on the secondary market and/or keep a few for your enjoyment. There’s more to love in packs.
What is minting?
Minting is the process of creating a new NFT. With Drops, minting happens when a collector purchases the NFT. When an NFT is purchased, the collector’s wallet interacts with the creator’s smart contract to create and collect the NFTs.
Are Drops fair?
Yes! Our Drops product has two core components to ensure that the experience is fair for all collectors:
- Once you mint from a drop, you will receive a pre-reveal asset. The actual NFT will be revealed at a later date by the creator. This is to ensure that the metadata can’t be revealed during the minting process. This prevents anyone from being able to identify a specific NFT during the sales period of the drop, which gives every buyer an opportunity to receive something special.
- A maximum of 10 NFTs are allowed to be minted per wallet, this enables collector access to the Drops they care about.
How do I participate in a drop?
Navigate to a drop by a chosen creator, and click “mint” – it’s that easy!
- A mint widget will show a pre-reveal placeholder asset, the number of mints available in the drop, and the fixed price for each mint.
- To mint from a drop, you will simply need to click the “mint” button on the widget. This is how you mint directly from the drop contract.
- You will then be redirected to a screen where you can choose to mint one or in packs of 3 or 5! You also have the option to mint any custom number that you’d like, up to 10 at a time.
How many NFTs can I collect from Drops?
Each collector can mint up to 10 NFTs per drop.
How are Drops priced?
Creators of the drop decide on a fixed price for their drop.
Who pays the gas for Drops?
The collector pays for gas.
Where can I learn what Drops are happening on Foundation?
Follow us on Twitter. To get notified when a drop starts, follow the creator on Foundation and make sure you’ve provided your email address in your profile settings for email updates.
Do I need to request access to create a drop?
Drops is now open access. You no longer need to submit an application to create a drop.
Is there a limit on the number of NFTs a creator can include in a drop?
10,000.
Can I use Drops to create an edition?
Drops is a great tool for large collections with randomized and unique token reveals. Editions are not recommended with a drop contract since all of the final revealed assets would be the same image. Please reach out to Foundation Support if you have any additional questions.
What kind of assets are supported?
The pre-reveal image will need to be a jpeg, gif, or a png file up to 50mb in size. The pre-reveal dimensions should ideally be a square, while the revealed NFTs can be whatever works best for your art.
For the reveals, Foundation has a file size upload limit of 50MB, and we currently support JPG, GIF, PNG, SVG, MP4 + MOV files.
Can I add custom metadata/attributes to the NFTs?
Yes! You can add custom names, descriptions, and any additional attributes to each NFT in your drop via CSV format. While some creators will use this to add rich information about the NFTs (such as traits, denoting tribes, mediums used, etc), others may use it to help collectors easily identify rare and unique pieces in the drop. The attributes are not shown to minters until the NFTs are revealed by the creator. Learn how to reveal a drop.
