(This is what you'd see if you were arriving from District Hall, Boston. If you just received a laser-cut token from the Internet-Connected Intergalatic Metaverse Gumball Machine, this is how you'd get your Free NFT.)
Are you arriving from District Hall, Boston, where you received a token from the Internet-Connected Intergalatic Metaverse Gumball Machine?
Does the token look like this?
A laser-cut physical token, burned into baltic birch. (Not from Russia -- a major supplier of this wood. We're boycotting).
Was it dispensed from a machine that looked like this?
The body of the internet-connected gumball machine. Note the stepper motor, the strip of blinky WS2812 LED lights, and the blobs of Sugru.
Here's another view, zoomed-out:
The 9-inch globe is the major feature, after all.
Okay, all set? In the right place?
(The reason we ask: the District Hall gumball machine also exists in the Metaverse -- in Decentraland to be specific. That's why it's called the Metaverse Gumball Machine. It's intergalatic. You can read the companion instructions, for the Metaverse version, here. We're posting both so inter-dimensional NFT travelers can see the difference.)
So we've established here that we're dealing with the District Hall, IRL, meatspace, physical version.
Let's focus on the mission at hand: Getting you that Free NFT.
Just go here, and enter your crypto wallet address. (In Real Life: if you arrived here via the QR-code-backed token dispensed from the gumball machine, that hyperlinked here 25 words ago would take you to a form that would get you that free NFT.)
That's the only prerequisite: you need a crypto wallet. They are free, and there are many choices.
Metamask is one that's frequently recommended. That would make it easy.
Once you submit your wallet address in the form referenced above, we'll transfer a fully minted NFT -- for free -- to your wallet address. You don't have to do anything else. It will be there, easily verifiable on the blockchain.
Now you can have fun with it. For example, you can explore exactly what kind of NFT it is, what it looks like, how it was created, and so on.
Or you can move on. You can come back to it in a few years and say to yourself in a semi-thoughtful distracted way, "Oh, yeaaah, I remember that."
More Information for the Interested
This NFT is on the Polygon blockchain. Polygon works on top of Ethereum which has become slow and expensive to use.
But here's the thing: Polygon syncs up perfectly with Ethereum, which is still the #1 NFT platform.
All that NFT bubble-ly behavior that has been so annoying to witness (Bored Ape, Crypto Punks, etc.) -- it has funded terrific development of Ethereum, which is the "settlement layer" of Polygon. So Polygon is now the smart kids choice for NFTs: virtually no gas fees, but ultimately "settled" on Top Choice, A-List Ethereum.
Polygon is the smart kids choice for NFTs: virtually no gas fees, but ultimately "settled" on Top Choice, A-List Ethereum.
So, bottom line: even though many old-school NFT types might wince (because they are locked into Ethereum as their only option), Polygon delivers a better experience than Ethereum: faster and cheaper (tiny, tiny gas fees).
The gas fees are whispery, almost imperceptible (like 0.001 Matic, currently less than a penny USD). That's why we can offer this NFT for free.
And best of all: the Polygon network was built to provide a better experience for projects that operate in harmony with the Ethereum chain.
Polygon's Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility makes it ideal for developers looking to build efficient and secure projects. The Polygon network is Ethereum-native, aligned to be interoperable with all of Ethereum’s existing, and future, infrastructures.
That's important, because think of all the developers who have been sharpening their skills on Ethereum, funded by early, crazy, well-funded NFT projects. All along they've been making Ethereum more solid, more bulletproof. Polygon taps into that, without saddling you with that layer-one mega gas fee.
So we're doing you a favor here: If you haven't used Polygon, it's time you do.
How to Sync Up with Polygon
It's easy to add Polygon to an Ethereum wallet. Here are a few helpful tutorials:
- https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/how-to-add-polygon-to-metamask
- https://www.cada.news/how-to-set-up-metamask-for-polygon-matic-network/
There are also lots of YouTube videos, like this one:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXzkVkPbvUs
Back to the Task at Hand
Your free, unique, NFT.
Just go here, and enter your wallet address. (Again, In Real Life if you arrived here via the QR-code-backed token dispensed from the gumball machine, a hyperlinked here 25 words ago would take you to a form that would get you that free NFT.)
If it doesn't work, let us know.
We'll try to help.