If you are finding it tough to decide between Ethereum or Solana for your NFT minting, this article is for you. I will be exploring each blockchain’s capacity, strengths, and weaknesses to help you make an informed decision.
Ethereum: Ecosystem, Marketplace, and Security
Ethereum is undoubtedly the biggest ecosystem of decentralized finance (DeFi), with numerous projects built on it. So you shouldn’t be surprised when you discover that most NFTs live on this blockchain as ERC-721 tokens.
To be more precise, over 85% of all NFTs in the market are on Ethereum. That explains why many NFT marketplaces are Ethereum-based.
Further, this blockchain leads the way in terms of size as it has a massive pool of sellers and buyers. Therefore, if you mint an Ethereum-based NFT, you will likely find people willing to buy your digital art.
What makes Ethereum a go-to blockchain for many developers is because of its security components and data architecture.
However, with increased activity on the network, Ethereum users pay high gas fees, discouraging some from minting NFTs. This has pushed several NFT creators and collectors to look for other blockchains that offer low gas fees, scalability, and high throughput, such as Solana.
While incurring high gas fees can be annoying, the upside is that more funds are flowing into Ethereum, making it easy to flip NFTs. Cryptoslam data indicates that in March 2023, Ethereum-based NFT marketplaces recorded a total trading volume of $537 million compared to $93.6 million for those on Solana.
In addition, the data shows that Ethereum hosts some of the most prominent NFT collections. They include Mutant Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, and Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Solana: Throughput, Low Fees, Growing Ecosystem
Solana employs the Proof-of-History consensus mechanism and is considered a high-performance blockchain. The network processes over 60,000 transactions per second.
Unlike on Ethereum, transactions cost a few cents on Solana. For this reason, most NFT projects are now moving to Solana.
Further, Solana is not prone to technical problems, enabling developers to build projects seamlessly. This is why Solana is increasingly becoming the home of NFTs.
NFT minting on Solana-based marketplaces is considerably cheap, boosting your chances of earning profit once you list it on the second market.
While it’s clear that Solana is miles behind Ethereum in terms of size, it does not mean the blockchain isn’t growing. The network has seen an increase in its number of users since the start of 2022. Analysts from investment company JP Morgan claim that Solana has the potential to overtake Ethereum in the coming years.
One major concern that many Solana users have is rugpulls. With the increasing number of users on the network, several scam projects have cropped up, intending to rob them. In 2022 alone, investors lost over $25 million to scammers. That said, conducting proper research before investing in any NFT project is important.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, each blockchain has its own highlights and lowlights. So choosing where to mint NFTs really depends on your preferences.
Solana
Highlights: Growing ecosystem, High throughput and scalability, and Low transaction fees
Lowlights: Less secure and Small market.
Ethereum
Highlights: Access to a large market and high security.
Lowlights: High gas fees, low throughput and scalability, and slow transactions due to network congestion.
