What are some ways I can screen for high-quality NFT projects?

Introduction

The following article is non-exhaustive. We've put this together as a helpful guide in learning some of the ways you can protect yourself as a user, but you should always perform your own research before purchasing any NFT for any amount of money. This information is not financial advice nor an exhaustive list or recommended course of action.

NFTs can be a great way for digital artists and other creators to showcase their creations to the world, in a public forum but secured by a blockchain. We'd like to make one thing clear: artists may showcase their art in any way they see fit and, as owners of their NFT collection, can promote their work in any way they deem necessary to gain presence and following.

That said, we have observed some common behaviors or qualities that are often associated with higher quality projects where creators continue to engage with their community following the initial mint phase of their project. That's what we'll discuss in this article.

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Tips For Screening for High-Quality NFT Projects

• Well Known or Publicly Disclosed Creator: Artists who make NFT collections may be launching their first collection, so you may not know who they are. While many artists just entering the space may simply be new to the ecosystem, it's generally a good idea to perform some research on the artist to see some of their prior work, or what their communication style is with respect to their work. For example, does the creator like to engage with their community to discuss the meaning of their artwork or their driving passions? Is the creator active on a social platform? These may be some indicators of the artist's commitment to their works and to you as a potential buyer.
• Disclosed Roadmap or Utility: Some projects are launched simply for the beauty and appreciation of the art, in other words, standalone art not associated with any future roadmap or utility. This art may be appreciated by some, but is less likely to have a high-liquidity market for secondary sales, as art is always highly subjective. Projects with a disclosed roadmap or utility won't necessarily have a high-liquidity market, but they generally command larger communities that are interested in the long-term success of the project. This is one factor that can help promote the long-term value of an NFT long after its initial mint.
• Meaningful Social Media Following, Website, or other Communication Channels: While some artists release their works without a large following, we've observed some of the most successful NFT projects and they generally have meaningful social media followings, high-quality websites, and additional communication channels for their community such as Twitter and/or Discord. These channels can provide access to the creator and their team if they have one, as well as encourage the community to discuss the artwork and its associated roadmap or utility, which generally can help promote the long-term value of the NFTs.
• High-Quality Communications Regarding Mints or Sales: There is no "correct way" to promote a project or its individual mints or sales, however, we've seen many higher-quality projects focus less on the monetary aspects of their collection or the collection's "floor price" (i.e. the collection's lowest priced NFT listed for sale). Instead, they'll emphasize things like community growth, community satisfaction, and future planning with respect to their project.
• Consistent Delivery and Execution: Successful projects are typically driven by the community, so it's not uncommon that a creator might shift their focus or change the trajectory of their project based on community feedback. That said, the highest quality projects we've seen typically have some level of commitment to their initial mission or goals with their project, and will make sure they uphold promises that were made to their community. This doesn't mean that things can't ever change or that every roadmap item must be met, but generally speaking, a positive track record of making and meeting defined goals will generally help promote the long-term value of the project's NFTs.

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Avoiding Scams Claiming Association with Gamma

The outlined points above are some great ways you can protect yourself as a user. We also wanted to outline a few Gamma internal procedures to ensure you're always working with our actual team if you contact us requesting assistance.

• We will only ever communicate with you via our defined communication channels:
  • Our official support email: support@gamma.io or support@gammaio.zendesk.com
  • Our official Twitter accounts: @gammaiosupport or @trygamma on Twitter
  • Our official support portal: support.gamma.io
  • An official employee email account <name>@gamma.io
• We will never ask you to disclose your seed phrase or private key: Never disclose your seed phrase or private keys to anyone, including Gamma or any other entity. There is no support issue that will ever require you to disclose this information for any reason. If you have disclosed your seed phrase or private key for any reason, please immediately remove all funds and NFTs and consider your wallet to be permanently compromised.
• We will never request money or NFTs from you: There is no support interaction that will ever require you to manually send STX, NFTs, or any other asset to our team. If there are actions you'd like to perform, we may provide instructions on how you might complete this using our user interface, but the recipient should never be someone claiming to be a Gamma team member.
• We will never encourage a private sale: Private sales are those performed without a trusted third party, such as a marketplace contract, or a trustless operation, such as a contract call that performs transfers without relying on any third party. As the owner of your NFT, you have the ability to perform private trades, however, our team will never encourage this and you should ensure your third party is fully trusted before proceeding with any private sale. If at all possible, we recommend you avoid the use of a third party even when there is a reasonable degree of trust and instead list your NFT for sale on a trusted marketplace or using a trustless swap.
• When in doubt, double check: If you receive an outbound request from someone claiming to be from our team, you should generally assume this is suspicious communication. There are very few reasons, if any, that we would need to reach out to you proactively, especially if you are an end user and not a creator. If you are unsure as to the legitimacy of the communication, please contact us directly using the official channels above.
• Kinds of information we might need in order to help you: If you do reach out requesting assistance, we shouldn't need personal information from you other than a contact email address or a public wallet address. Public addresses and public transaction data can already be found on the blockchain, so you can safely share this information with our team. We can use this information to help diagnose problems like error codes or explaining outcomes resulting from buying or selling an NFT. Generally speaking, we won't provide any information other than an explanation for what happened and tips to avoid this issue again in the future. We will never make demands or guarantees within our communications.

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Reporting Collections and Requesting Support from Gamma

You can use the official channels above if you need to contact us requesting support from us. You can report fraud, collections infringing upon another person's copyright or intellectual property, and other potential scams to fraudreport@gamma.io. We will do our best to remove fraudulent collections and NFTs from our platform using the information we can source.

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Notice Regarding Collections

The following notice applies to both verified and unverified collections on Gamma. Please be safe and exercise caution before making any purchase of any NFT with the assistance of Gamma's platform.

Verification does not indicate our support nor does it validate a project beyond meeting a specific set of guidelines. These are defined for Ordinals here, and for Stacks in this article. It is possible that verified collections are unsafe or illegitimate, and we encourage our community to notify us of such behavior so we can take appropriate actions to unverify and/or prevent these NFTs from being listed or traded on our platform.

Regardless of whether verification suggests the safety or approval of a collection, users are always encouraged to do their own research and only make purchases of assets they fully trust. Due to the decentralized nature of NFTs and smart contracts, Gamma is unable to refund or cancel transactions made for any NFT, including those that are verified. Every transaction made on the blockchain is immutable (unable to be reversed).

Users should only mint or purchase NFTs, regardless of creator, with the expectation that there may be no future liquid market thereafter or any buyer willing to repurchase the NFT for any amount of money.