Webb NFT

Four of the first James Webb Space Telescope images side by side: the SMACS 0723 deep field, Stephan's Quintet in near- and mid-infrared, and the Carina Nebula Webb's first images. Images by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, 2022.

Webb NFT is a set of free commemorative NFTs of the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), which NASA released in July 2022.

The project

When NASA released those images, I made a simple smart contract that let anyone mint one for free, just pay gas. The page credits me and DefCrypto/DefDAO. Minting is still open.

The Webb NFT mint page on launch night, showing SMACS 0723 (#1) with a Mint button, connected to the Goerli testnet as jamiedubs.eth Testing the mint page on Goerli, just after midnight on July 13, 2022.

webb.jamiedubs.com today, showing Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 (#1) with Mint and Mint All buttons and a Connect Wallet button webb.jamiedubs.com in September 2026, with the "Mint All" button added on July 14, 2022.

Thanks to Poppy for feedback along the way.

There are six images, including both the NIRCam and MIRI versions of two targets:

  1. Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, “Webb’s First Deep Field”
  2. Carina Nebula (NGC 3324)
  3. Southern Ring Nebula (NIRCam)
  4. Southern Ring Nebula (MIRI)
  5. Stephan’s Quintet (NIRCam)
  6. Stephan’s Quintet (MIRI)

Webb's First Deep Field: galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, thousands of galaxies with stretched arcs of gravitationally lensed light Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. Image by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, 2022.

The Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina Nebula (NGC 3324): orange gas and dust ridges under a blue star field Carina Nebula (NGC 3324). Image by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, 2022.

The Southern Ring Nebula in near-infrared (NIRCam): a blue center ringed by orange shells of gas Southern Ring Nebula, NIRCam. Image by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, 2022.

The Southern Ring Nebula in mid-infrared (MIRI): a red center ringed by pale blue shells of gas Southern Ring Nebula, MIRI. Image by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, 2022.

Stephan's Quintet in near- and mid-infrared combined: five galaxies, four of them tangled together, with orange dust and gas between them, against a field of distant galaxies Stephan's Quintet, NIRCam and MIRI composite. Image by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, 2022.

NASA’s media guidelines say its images generally are not subject to copyright in the United States. The NFTs are a separate thing: tokens that point at those images. Minting one doesn’t give you any rights to the image or mean NASA endorses it, and NASA’s current guidelines say it doesn’t want its imagery used for NFTs.

How it came together

It was a speed project, and the README still carries its “Speed Project Approved: <4 hours” badge. The commit log tells the story:

The contract is an ERC-1155 built with Solmate and Foundry. The assets live on the appropriately named Interplanetary File System (IPFS). Etherscan shows about 69,600 holders as of September 2026.

2022

See also: Gawds, DefDAO