NFT Contract Planning for Creators
A creator's planning guide to NFT contracts: rights and licences, royalties, metadata storage, supply, admin powers and testing.
Work through these sections in order. Each one feeds the next, and together they become your deployment plan.
1. Rights first
Decide what a buyer may do with your work: display only, limited merch, full commercial use or a public licence. Write it in a short document you can link to. Remember that selling a token is not the same as selling copyright. More in who keeps the copyright.
2. Supply and editions
One of one, a numbered edition or a large generative set? This shapes the token standard. Unique pieces commonly use ERC-721. Editions often use ERC-1155. Decide also whether supply is capped forever.
3. Metadata
Draft the name, description and traits for every token. Choose durable storage. Decide whether the metadata will be frozen, and when. See where to store metadata.
4. Royalties and payouts
Pick a rate you can defend and a payee wallet you will control long term. For collaborations, consider a payment-splitting contract or a multi-signature wallet. Read whether royalties are guaranteed before you plan income around them.
5. Admin powers
Every power you keep, such as pausing, minting more or changing links, is a power collectors must trust you with. Keep only what you need. Announce when you will give each one up.
6. Testing and launch
Deploy to a test network, mint, transfer and view tokens in real wallets. Then follow our pre-deployment checklist on launch day.
This is general guidance for creators, not legal or financial advice. For contracts and licences that matter, talk to a qualified professional.