Creating a collection with the launchpad

There are two types of collections you can launch on Asteroid:

1. A public launch where you allow others to randomly inscribe the pieces in your collection.

2. A private launch where you inscribe each piece in the collection by hand.

Both approaches are explored in the sections below.

Public launch

Launching a public collection on Asteroid involves three steps:

1. Create a “collection inscription.” This inscription includes all of the relevant metadata for your collection (i.e. collection name, main image for the collection, description, etc.). It acts like a container where you can upload all of the pieces in your collection.

2. Set your launch options. Choose how, when and at what price others can mint pieces from your collection.

3. Upload your inscriptions. Uploaded images will be temporarily stored on an off-chain server and inscribed on-chain when an end user mints a piece from your collection.

To get started: Navigate from the menu at https://asteroidprotocol.io/app/inscriptions to “Create” → “Collection” and choose “Public Launch.” Or go directly there: https://asteroidprotocol.io/app/app/create/collection

Step 1: Creating a collection inscription

In step 1, you’ll need to create a collection inscription. Your collection inscription acts like a container for your collection. With it, you inscribe the name of your collection, a description and the collection’s main image. Other settings include:

• Ticker: This ticker is used to build out a custom URL for your collection at asteroidprotocol.io

• Royalty percentage: The royalty is a percent-based fee that goes to the collection creator anytime a piece in the collection is traded on the secondary market

• Important links for the collection: A website, X account, Telegram account, etc., where people can learn more about your work

Step 2: Setting your launch options

After creating your collection inscription, you can specify your launch options. Specifically, you’ll need to set the following:

• Collection supply: The total number of pieces of artwork in your collection

• Collection reveal: The “reveal” is the moment when you want collectors to see the artwork they’ve purchased. This can happen after they mint a piece, on a specific date and time, or once the collection is minted out (or after 3 months if the collection does not mint out). If the reveal is set to occur in the future, minters will see a mintpass in their wallets until the actual artwork is revealed.

• Mint stages: Mint stages allow you to reward fans based on criteria you set. For example, imagine a creator who launched a collection called “Astrochamp” in the past. The creator could allow anyone who currently holds an Astrochamp piece to mint a piece in their new collection (say Astrochamp Ultra) at a reduced price. To create a mint stage, give it a name and description, then set the dates when Astrochamp holders are allowed to mint an Ultra piece with a discount. To ensure Astrochamp holders are the only minters allowed to participate in a specific stage, you’ll need to add their addresses to your whitelist (more on that below). You can elect to have as many stages as you’d like.

To build out your whitelist, you can find the addresses of anyone who holds a piece in a given collection by visiting this link and pasting the following query in the operation box (be sure to replace “MONG” with your target collection’s actual ticker):

query {
inscription(where: { collection: { symbol: { _eq: MONG } } }) {
current_owner
marketplace_inscription_details(where: { marketplace_listing: { is_cancelled: { _eq: false }, is_filled: {_eq: false} } }) {
marketplace_listing {
seller_address
}}}}

Learn more about using the Asteroid API in the Asteroid Docs.

Step 3: Uploading your inscriptions

When you upload your inscriptions, it’s important to note that you’re not actually inscribing them. Instead, you’re storing them on an off-chain server. When a user chooses to mint a piece in your collection, they must execute an on-chain transaction, which publishes each piece they’ve purchased on-chain. If your mint reveal is set for a future date, users will receive a placeholder/mintpass that will be inscribed on-chain at the time of your mint reveal.

There are two options to upload your inscriptions:

1. Upload your images one at a time

2. Upload multiple images at once (aka a bulk upload)

If you upload images one at a time, you’ll be able to add traits and other metadata in a dialog box.

If you choose to upload your images in bulk, you’ll need to upload a spreadsheet (specifically, a .csv file), which includes metadata about each image. Learn more on the bulk upload methods below.

Bulk upload option 1: Add metadata with a .csv file

A .csv file is a spreadsheet without any visual formatting applied. Note that it must be saved as a .csv file and not an Excel file or other format. Inside the .csv file, you can include all relevant metadata (the inscription name, filename, and any traits that apply to individual art pieces. To use a .csv, when you select multiple images to upload to the launchpad, you must also select a .csv file that uses the formatting shown below.

• Column A: The token ID, which is a unique ID for each piece in the collection in ascending order starting from 1

• Column B: The name for the inscription

• Column C: The filename for the inscription (i.e. 1.png or 1.jpg)

• Column D-I: Any traits which apply to that inscription

• Column J: The description for the inscription

To build your CSV, you can copy the example metadata below, or download the templated .csv file.

Example metadata.csv

token_id,name,filename,background,body,stamp,head,hat,eyes,description
1,"robot #1","1.png","light-blue","body3","none","head3","none","none","A robot is..."
2,"robot #2","2.png","light-blue","body3","none","head3","none","none","A robot is..."
3,"robot #3","3.png","light-blue","body3","none","head10","none","none","A robot is..."
4,"robot #4","4.png","light-blue","body3","none","head10","none","none","A robot is..."
5,"robot #5","5.png","orange","body2","none","head11","none","none","A robot is..."

2KB

metadata.csv

Bulk upload method 2: Add metadata with JSON

An alternative to uploading a .csv is uploading a .json file that accompanies each piece in your collection. So, if you upload a piece of artwork named 1.jpg, you will also need to upload a file named 1.json per the structure below. If you use this approach, each image must have an accompanying .json file.

To build your json files, you can copy the example metadata below, or download the templated .csv file.

Example metadata json file like 1.json

{
    "token_id": 1,
    "name": "robot #1",
    "filename": "1.png",
    "attributes": [
        {
            "trait_type": "background",
            "value": "light-blue"
        },
        {
            "trait_type": "body",
            "value": "body3"
        },
        {
            "trait_type": "stamp",
            "value": "none"
        },
        {
            "trait_type": "head",
            "value": "head3"
        },
        {
            "trait_type": "hat",
            "value": "none"
        },
        {
            "trait_type": "eyes",
            "value": "none"
        }
    ],
    "mime": "image/png",
    "isExplicit": false
}

690B

1.json

Private launch

Creating a private launch collection is a two-step process:

1. Visit the Create Collection page here. This non-transferrable inscription acts like a container or bucket, which you can add inscriptions into in Step 2.

2. Visit the Create Inscription page here. Your collection name (which you created in Step 1) will be available in the dropdown as you walk through the Create Inscription process. When you select your Collection in the dropdown, the inscription you’re creating will automatically be added to that Collection.

Once all of the pieces in your collection are inscribed, you can optionally list them for sale at a fixed price in the inscriptions marketplace.

Note: If you created inscriptions BEFORE collections were supported, you can migrate them into a collection at any time.