How to improve your NFT trading with Nodes
Tools have become some of the best examples of utilities for NFTs lately. They are becoming increasingly common and included in a variety of different projects to entice buyers to trade their tokens.
One of the most notable tools that have started to pop up are Nodes. While not new, this feature to a token is starting to help a variety of different traders around the metaverse.
So what is a node?
What are nodes?
A node is a token which your wallet is able to connect to that streamlines activity on a network for faster transactions. Simply by holding a node in a wallet, traders are able to connect to a network which interacts with the blockchain.
Examples of NFT Node Collections:
JustCubes
Moonbears
GM Key
Flippr
When are nodes useful?
Nodes work best when they are used to buy NFTs that are experiencing heavy activity. This is in fact the purpose of a node.
When an NFT collection experiences heavy activity (referred to as congestion), many buyers can lose out on the tokens that they want most. This can be a frustrating experience because it can ultimately lead to the loss of significant gains depending on how hyped up a project is.
Public Mints
A public mint offers traders the opportunity to buy an NFT straight from the team’s website after the initial whitelist sale occurs. At this time, buyer traffic can become heavy because public mints are first come, first serve selling events.
Nodes become especially useful during these public mints because they provide traders an advantage by moving their mint transactions to the front of the line.
This also helps the trader avoid a gas war where gas fees generally skyrocket due to network congestion by minting their tokens before others and leaving quickly.
2. Alpha Calls
Alpha calls (when a notable community member provides accurate information about what projects to buy and when) are extremely helpful posts for traders that want to maximize their trading profits.
Depending on the popularity and attention commanded by an alpha caller, certain projects can receive a spike in activity from the sudden rush of buyers that follow.
In this case, activity is generally a little lighter than a public mint, but it still creates a moment of congestion where a node can become beneficial.
3. News Announcements
Announcements are the moments that many traders wait for to sell their tokens. It’s a time when hype reaches its peak and trading volume takes a boost.
Announcements can come from a variety of sources including:
Twitter
Discord
Media Outlets
4. Sniping
Sniping is a term that traders use when they are able to buy a high valued token at a cheap price. This type of buying tends to be associated with tokens that have high rarity traits.
Nodes can become useful for this buying strategy because it can allow a trader to purchase a token before another trader because of the increased transaction speed created by the node.
How to use a node
Using a node, while simple, can come across as confusing for less tech-savvy traders; especially if they are still learning how to use a blockchain.
There are 2 ways to set up a node:
Snapshot
A snapshot is when a project team picks a time and then records the address of every wallet that holds their token. The advantages of a node are then given to the wallets that are recorded by this snapshot.
Teams will generally take a snapshot multiple times per week without a public schedule to prevent people from acquiring these utilities without holding the appropriate token.
2. Setting up a new network
The alternative to snapshots, which is a little more complicated, is to require holders to set up a new network within their wallet (generally MetaMask for Ethereum users).
The process involves adding an RPC URL that is associated with the node and linking it to the blockchain which the node resides on (in this case, the Ethereum mainnet).
It’s the same set of steps that any user would go through if they were to add other blockchains to their wallet such as Polygon or BSC and can be followed easily using a tutorial video.
