How to Vault Bitcoin/Counterparty NFTs

What is Counterparty?

Counterparty is an open-source token creation platform that launched on top of Bitcoin in January 2014. For the first time in Bitcoin history users had the ability to create their own tokens that were secured by the PoW coin. This allowed early participants the ability to partake in early token innovation and experimentation.

The native currency of Counterparty is XCP, which was created by sending Bitcoin to a “burn address” and in return would receive XCP. This is relevant because XCP is required to be spent in order to mint a new token on the platform. There are a variety of ways to acquire this currency including small exchanges, the native DEX, and dispensers.

The first token created on the platform is known as TEST, which was used just as it sounds, to test if the platform was functional. Since that day popular collection Spells of Genesis, Rare Pepes, Sarutobi Island, and Fake Rares have all gone on to find Historical and Cultural success while being native to Counterparty.

What you Need to Buy a Counterparty NFT

Accessing the Counterparty ecosystem is quite simple. You will need a handful of tools that are required to purchase and dispense tokens natively, which then can be Vaulted and sold on OpenSea or other EVM NFT Marketplaces.

To purchase Counterparty NFTs you will need:
FreeWallet (Mobile & Desktop Wallet)
Xchain (Block Explorer & Marketplace)
XCP (Native currency)

Now that you have all the tools, follow one of these step-by-step instructions to purchase your first Counterparty NFT.
How to Buy Rare Pepes
How to Buy Spells of Genesis

How to Vault your Counterparty NFTs

1) First, you’ll need ETH to pay for gas fees.

2) Second, Emblem requires 250 $COVAL to mint a vault.

3) If you don’t own any $COVAL tokens are available for purchase on Uniswap or Coinbase.

4) Now you’re ready! Click “Create” and let’s get started!

1) Once the create tab is open click on “Public” and then “Next” to begin labeling your vault.

1) Emblem Vault recommends the “Vault Name” to be established as so:

NAME OF ASSET (YEAR TOKEN WAS MINTED)| BLOCKCHAIN | SUPPLY

EXAMPLE: JEDI (2014) | Dogeparty | 1/1000

2) Emblem Vault recommends the “Vault Description” to be established as so:

“THIS TOKEN was created on THIS SPECIFIC DATE by ARTIST/CREATOR/TEAM and is a supply of TOTAL SUPPLY OF SPECIFIC TOKEN.”

“INPUT ANY RELEVANT FACTUAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SPECIFIC TOKEN, PROJECT, TEAM, OR SIGNIFICANT INFORMATION HERE. THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THE AMOUNT OF DETAIL THAT CAN BE SHARED IN THE VAULT DESCRIPTION.”

EXAMPLE: PEPESLAMBO was created on September 9th, 2022 by Anon Pepe (https://twitter.com/rkgk_ac) and is a total supply of 1000. This an official card of the “Fake Commons” Collection.

Minted on the 6th birthday of the legendary Nakamoto Card! This is the first card created in a Pepe collection inspired by Historical NFTs. PepesLambo is dedicated to the 2018 EtherLambos collection.

3) Click “Next” to move to additional vaulting steps.

1) Click on “Choose File”.

2) Choose an jpeg, jpg, gif, or MP4 file from your computer.

3) Click “Create Vault”

1) You’ll now notice that the owner of the vault is 0x0000.. which is what should be displayed. This means that the vault has been created but has yet to be minted on to the blockchain.

2) This is where your vaulted tokens will be displayed. Since the vault hasn’t been minted and tokens haven’t been sent to the vault yet, the vault will remain empty displaying “refreshing” until done so.

3) Click “Mint Vault”.

1) Click “Sign Message”.

2) Check Gas Fees and estimate the appropriate amount of gwei required measured against the amount of traffic on the Ethereum Network (this example is 13 gwei) You can EthGasStation.info for help!

3) Click to “Confirm” the transaction and mint your Emblem Vault.

Sending Counterparty NFTs to your vault

Now that you have created a vault, you need to send your Counterparty NFT to the vault. Failure to do so may get your vault flagged for removal.

1) Click “BTC/XCP/OMNI” under “Deposit Addresses” to view your Counterparty wallet address.

2) Click on your address under “BTC Address” to copy your wallet address.

Tip: Counterparty is deployed on top of Bitcoin and both platforms share the same Bitcoin address.

Once your wallet address is copied head over to FreeWallet or to Counterparty wallet of your choice. (Counterwallet, rarepepewallet, etc)

1) Open up FreeWallet and click “Send Funds”.

2) Paste in the copied BTC Address from Emblem Vault into the “Destination” tab.

3) Choose the matching NFT under “Token Name” to the Emblem Vault you created.

4) Choose the correct “Amount” of tokens to send.

5) Click “Send Funds”.

Now head back to your vault and click “Refresh Balance”. After a few minutes your NFT should display inside of the vault. Congrats, you have successfully vaulted your very own Counterparty NFT!

Bonus Tip: If you have any plans to crack open the vault in the future to bring your asset back on-chain then we recommend also vaulting some $BTC inside. This will save you an additional step if you plan to move your asset from it’s imported wallet to a different location.