How to Buy INKBLOCKS

Two ways to buy

Paying with USD

If you choose to pay with US dollars, the checkout experience is the same as any other online purcahse. You will receive a confirmation email right away with your image file attached. We will also create a wallet to hold your NFT and send you instructions to access it.

Paying with Solana cryptocurrency

The rest of this page is a step-by-step guide for how to buy an INKBLOCK with Solana cryptocurency. It does not presume any prior experience with cryptocurrency. If you have addtional questions, please feel free to contact us.

Overview of paying with Solana:

1. Create a Coinbase account. (10 min)
   • Connect your bank account
   • Buy $SOL
2. Set up Phantom Wallet (2 min)
3. Send $SOL from your Coinbase to your Phantom Wallet (2 min)
4. Buy your INKBLOCK and feel awesome! (1 min)

The next sections will go through each step in detail.

Set up your Coinbase account

Coinbase is an exchange where you can purchase cryptocurrencies in exchange for fiat currencies like US dollars.

First, go to https://www.coinbase.com and follow the prompts to register an account. If you have ever registered an online account, this will be pretty familiar, but Coinbase also has a helpful Getting Started page.

This video walks through the process:

Connect your bank to Coinbase

After logging in to the Coinbase dashboard, click your profile in the top right corner to reveal the Settings link and click it. On the Settings page, click "Payment methods" and then "Add a payment method". There are multiple options for payment methods. If you choose a bank account, Coinbase will walk you through steps to select your bank and authorize the connection by signing in to your online account.

This video walks through the process:

Buy $SOL

Now that you have a Coinbase account, you are ready to buy some cryptocurrency. The currency used to buy INKBLOCKS is called Solana, often written as: $SOL. Start by clicking the big "Buy / Sell" button in the header. Choose Solana / SOL and select the amount. You should buy a little more $SOL than the price of your INKBLOCK in order to cover network fees. An extra 0.025$SOL (roughly $5USD) should be plenty.

NOTE: If you just created a brand new account, there is a chance that Coinbase will hold it hostage for a couple days and you will not be able to transfer to external wallets immediately. These security protocols are entirely determined by the Coinbase, and the likelihood probably depends on multiple factors related to your account. This can be a frustrating speed bump when you are eager to buy your first INKBLOCK. 😖 The good news is that this hassle should only occur in the beginning after creating a brand new account.

This video walks through the process of buying $SOL:

Create a Phantom Wallet

Phantom is one of the more popular wallets for managing Solana cryptocurrency. Your first question might be: Don't I already have a Solana wallet in my Coinbase account? You're right! However, most NFT marketplaces do not integrate directly with Coinbase wallets yet. So in this step, we'll create a Phantom wallet, which is widely supported by most NFT marketplaces. It might be helpful to think of Coinbase as your savings account, and Phantom as your checking account.

Visit https://phantom.app and follow the prompts to "add it" to your browser. Make sure you visit this official URL and not something similar that is pretending to be Phantom (in order to scam you). Phantom is a browser extension that connects your web3 wallet with websites that deal with cryptocurrency. Follow the prompts to install the extension in your preferred browser. Afterwards, you should see a Phantom button in the toolbar of your browser. Click it to open Phantom and click the prompt to create a new wallet. As a best practice, you should write down the "secret recovery phrase" (also sometimes called a "seed phrase") and store it somewhere very safe that is offline. This secret phrase is the ONLY way to recover your wallet if you lose it somehow. And if someone else gets it, that person has complete control of your wallet.

This video walks through the creation of a Phantom wallet:

Send $SOL from Coinbase to your Phantom wallet

If you followed these steps in order, you have some $SOL in your Coinbase account, and an empty Phantom wallet installed on your browser. Let's send the $SOL to your Phantom wallet you can use it. Start by opening Phantom and clicking the 64 character address in the header to copy it. Open your Coinbase account and click the big "Send / Receive" button in the header. On the "Send" screen, paste in the Phantom wallet address you just copied. Send as much $SOL as you like. Make sure you transfer enough to cover the cost of your item, and a bit extra for network transaction fees.

This video walks through the process of transferring $SOL form Coinbase to Phantom:

Buy an INKBLOCK

Now, the fun part! Shop the website and find the INKBLOCK that you want to buy. Click the "Buy" button, which will take you to a listing page on an NFT marketplace. These days, our favorite is Solsea, but that may change in the future. Create an account and connect your Phantom wallet to the marketplace site. Most sites will automatically prompt you to connect your wallet when you arrive. When you click the "Buy" button, Phantom will ask you to approve the transaction. And when you do, the NFT should appear in your Phantom wallet (under the collections tab) within seconds. You did it! 🎉

This video will walk through buying an NFT on Solsea:

Congratulations!! If you run into issues or questions please reach out on Discord in the #support server. Or email us and we will do our best to assist you.