Learn: Unlockable content in NFTs

What unlockable content is, how it works, and how to add it to your NFT collection correctly

Which marketplaces support unlockable content?

Even though unlockable content can open up many moving new ideas, NFT marketplaces that support it can be counted on one hand. This is mainly due to the fact that NFT marketplaces face two main challenges.

First and foremost, there is a storage issue. NFT platforms do not offer storage on-chain because it would potentially lead to huge costs. Thus, usually, NFTs are stored in distributed file systems, such as IPFS, Arweave or even in centralized ones.

Then, if unlockable content is not actually stored on-chain, it becomes very platform-specific. This limits the ideas of creating custom unlockable content and the possibilities of adding it to NFT collections. However, there are a few NFT platforms that have already implemented unlockable content for NFTs on their platform — OpenSea, Solsea, Rarible and Mintable.

How to create NFTs with unlockable content

Generally, for artists, the option to add unlockable content is available on NFT marketplaces when setting up NFTs. In other words, artists can attach unlockables while creating or editing them. So, how to add unlockable content to your NFT collection?

There is not much difference between adding unlockable content on OpenSea, Solsea or any other platform that supports this. The scheme is approximately the same. Unlockables are limited to plain-text content. NFT platforms provide a large text area for adding any content artists prefer, like a story of the work, a thank you message or a certificate of authenticity.

Unlockable content addition settings limited to the text format mean that NFT creators cannot upload any files they want in the form of an image or a video. Alternatively, they can simply add links to the needed files hosted in other storage solutions they like, which they have to organize themselves. Therefore, the responsibility for ensuring that the unlockable content remains available for a long time belongs to the authors.