Art storage
An NFT is a token on the chain that points to a picture. The token can't be lost. Whether the picture is still there in ten years depends on where it's kept, and that varies a lot from one collection to the next.
Lasts as long as PulseChain
The art is written into the contract itself, usually as SVG or tightly packed pixels, and the contract draws it when asked. There's no link to break and no host to pay.
Mintra marks these collections On-chain art (87 so far).
Lasts while someone keeps a copy
The token points to a file by its fingerprint (a CID), and any computer holding the file can serve it. That's sturdy while copies exist. Once the last one goes (a free pinning service shuts down, a creator stops paying), no gateway can find it.
The good news: the same files always have the same CID, so the old links work again the moment someone re-uploads them.
Lasts while the bills are paid
The token points to the project's own server. Fast and flexible, and also the most fragile: when the domain lapses or the server goes down, so does the art, and whoever runs the site can change it.
Drawn by their contracts
Mintra checks every collection's pictures regularly. When the files they point to can't be found anywhere, the collection gets a plain note saying so, instead of a wall of blank squares. Right now that's 84 collections.
Nothing else changes. The NFTs, their owners and their trading history are all on the chain, untouched. Only the pictures are missing.
If you made the collection
Upload the same image folder to IPFS again, with any pinning service. Same files, same CID: every existing link starts working, with nothing to change in the contract. Mintra notices within a day.
If you saved the files
Anyone can pin a CID they hold the files for. Collectors who kept copies can bring a collection back for everyone, even if the creator is gone.
If the art was on a website
Only the project can fix it, by putting the files back at the same addresses.
