Collecting art on Tezos: How to use Temple Wallet to buy NFTs

What is a Temple Wallet?

Temple Wallet is an open-source and decentralised cryptocurrency wallet, which allows you to interact with the Tezos ecosystem. Within Temple Wallet, you can do many things, including but not limited to securely storing your currency, staking your Tezos or spending Tezos on NFTs.

What is Tezos?

Tezos (XTZ) is a cryptocurrency which was originally created around 2014. It uses the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) protocol, and is a popular cryptocurrency for artists to use for their NFTs, often due to the extremely low gas fees.

Great! How do I get started?

First, you have to go to Temple Wallet's website, and choose if you wish to get started on browser or mobile. If you choose browser, it will allow you to select which browser you want to install Temple Wallet on e.g. Opera, Firefox or Google Chrome. If you choose to go down the mobile route, you are welcome to download on Apple Store or Google Play.

Please note, that for this guide, we will focus on the browser download and process only, however mobile usability is very similar.

Find your favourite browser on this screen, and select that one to install Temple Wallet on. You will be taken to the respective browser extension download, which will prompt you to download the browser extension onto your chosen browser.

After that is complete, you will be asked to either import an existing wallet, or create a new wallet. If this is your first time setting Temple Wallet, you should click on the 'Create a new Wallet' button.

Next, will be your seed phrase. Your seed phrase will firstly be hidden behind a box that you need to click on in order to display it. Make sure that you do not show this to others, and complete this step privately and on your own machine. Your seed phrase is very important, and you should never share this with anyone as it will give them access to your wallet. When you are ready, click on the seed phrase box to display your seed phrase, and take note of these words wherever you feel is safest for you. Before moving on from this page, you will be asked to confirm that you made a back-up of your seed phrase.

On the next page, Temple Wallet will actually test if you have correctly backed-up your seed phrase, and they will ask you to fill in gaps in a sequence of words. If you correctly input the missing words i.e. matching your seed phrase, you will be successfully moved onto the next screen. You will be then asked to create a new password. Do ensure that this password is complicated and difficult to guess, but ensure that it is something you will remember. You will be also asked about consent to things like analytics, terms and conditions etc.

Congratulations! You now have a Temple Wallet

Nicely done! Hopefully that wasn't much of a headache.

We will now focus on things you can do in your wallet. It is likely that after setting your wallet up, you want to fund your wallet. There are different ways in which you can do that.

Firstly, your option is to transfer Tezos from another account. This could be from many different places, e.g. a different wallet you own, a friend's wallet or from an exchange. In all of these scenarios, if you want to move Tezos to your new Temple Wallet you should click on 'Receive'. This will generate an address for you which you need to input into whatever you are moving your Tezos from and complete the transaction from that end. Once you do that, your funds should show up in your Temple Wallet. Please ensure that you copy the address from 'Receive' correctly as this is where your money will be sent to and this step is final. If you do this incorrectly your funds will most likely be lost.

Secondly, you could also buy Tezos directly from your Temple Wallet. By clicking on 'Buy' you will be transferred to different ways of buying your Tezos to fund your newly created Temple Wallet. Hopefully one of those methods is what you were looking for, and you now have some funds in your wallet. Yippee!

So, how do I get NFTs now?!

Great question. There is a variety of different marketplaces on Tezos. Most of them are now visible on Objkt.com, so even if someone minted on a different platform you should be able to view and buy it there. It's a great place to start your journey and explore the variety of different art genres within the Tezos ecosystem and find where your home could be. Other marketplaces that exist include but are not limited to Teia, Kalamint, Versum and of course, FxHash.

Each of these marketplaces have their own mechanics, but most allow for searching for specific key words or artists so that you can easily find whatever it is that you are looking for. There are many different philosophies to collecting NFTs, some are looking for cheaper pieces that they can flip i.e. sell for profit, some are looking to support the community and their favourite artists and some are simply trying to be part of history. Of course, all of those reasons can also co-exist.

Whenever you are starting out with any Tezos marketplace, you will need to connect your Temple Wallet and create your account on the marketplace. Usually you can set up your profile picture, profile description and some links to your socials. Each marketplace deals with this slightly differently, but all will need your wallet and this is why Temple Wallet is a crucial part your NFT journey.

In today's article, we will focus on browsing for NFTs on FxHash. I have already connected my wallet and created my account on FxHash, so I can now comfortably search the marketplace in hope to find some gems.

You can see my profile picture next to the search bar, which appears on the top right hand side of your screen, if you have successfully set up your account. Also, if you know me, you know I love cats so naturally my first instinct is to search for tokens about cats.

As you can see above, the search bar is really robust. It brings up a myriad of options, but can feel a bit overwhelming at first. You can sort this by users, tokens, articles... If you are not sure what you are looking for, I always just click on 'explore more ->' as that allows for some more filtering options where you can sort by price, editions, recency of token etc. I find the filtering options really useful as it caters to a lot of different collecting philosophies which I mentioned earlier on. You can just endlessly browse through and get lost in beautiful art for hours.

Personally, the fun in Tezos really comes from being able to connect with many different art genres, artists and marketplaces and I do feel like there is a place here for everyone. It can feel overwhelming when you're just starting out, it took me a week to figure out how to mint NFTs on Hic et Nunc, but the Tezos community is a welcoming one so if you ever feel lost just ask fellow Tezos users, and I am sure they will help you find your way. And, all of this is of course made possible by the fantastic Temple Wallet.

This is where I will hand this off to YOU. Make sure to check out the different marketplaces, find your favourite artists, collect their work if you can, or even mint your own work! Why not right? Tezos, is after all, the blockchain where you can experiment a lot. Just remember that when you do that, tweet about it so we can all find you! And most importantly, don't forget to have fun.