If you are familiar with the term Non-Fungible Token or NFTs, you might have heard about OpenSea. But what is it exactly? OpenSea is an NFT marketplace where people can buy, sell, exchange, trade, or even create NFTs.
With millions of users, it is the largest NFT marketplace on the internet. This guide aims to explore what OpenSea is, how it operates, what can be traded in it, and what security it offers.
What Is OpenSea?
OpenSea is the world’s first and largest NFT marketplace with millions of users around the world. The marketplace was created in 2017 and soon became the go-to place for NFT enthusiasts. The user-friendly interface, high security, and affordable blockchain technology made OpenSea accessible to everyone.
Alex Atallah and Devin Fizner conceived OpenSea as a safe platform for NFT collectors and enthusiasts to explore NFTs and trade digital assets. The platform operates on Ethereum and Polygon networks, enabling faster and more secure transactions.
The marketplace also supports Klayton, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, Zora Network, and Base blockchains. The blockchain technology used by OpenSea cryptographically secures the information of the NFTs.
After years of operation, OpenSea has evolved into more than a marketplace. Apart from trading NFTs, users can create NFTs on OpenSea and sell them to NFT collectors. The NFT collections of OpenSea have surpassed 2 million in the last year, making it the largest NFT marketplace.
What NFTs Are Traded In OpenSea?
OpenSea allows users to trade various NFTs like digital art, videos, music, membership passes, virtual lands, domain names, cryptocurrencies, crypto collectibles, etc.
The platform also allows users to create an NFT or an NFT collection that can be sold or auctioned. The NFTs can be sold at fixed prices or through auction. By 2020, OpenSea has announced that any user can mint or publish an NFT for free.
How Does It Work?
The user-friendly interface and intuitive design of OpenSea make it the best platform for beginners to venture into the world of NFTs. In this decentralized marketplace, NFTs can be bought using cryptocurrencies.
OpenSea uses Ethereum’s ERC-721 and ERC-1155 to ensure there is no manipulation or plagiarism on the platform. The platform facilitates easy transfer of the ownership of the NFT and secure transaction of crypto funds.
All the transactions can be easily tracked using the blockchain technology. The Ethereum gas fees are usually very high. OpenSea has reduced the transaction fee to a meager amount by incorporating the Polygon network. thus making it accessible to everyone.
To buy an NFT you need to link your crypto wallet with OpenSea. The marketplace supports the most popular crypto wallets like MetaMAsk, Coinbase, Bitski, Trust Wallet, Core, Phantom, Glow, WalletConnect, Solflare, Kaikas, Opera Touch, and Fortmatic.
Create an account on OpenSea and search for NFTs. Buy your favorite NFT using cryptocurrencies such as ETH, USDC, KLAY, DAI, and AVAX. You can also create your own NFT collection on OpenSea and sell it or auction it from the platform. OpenSea also allows you to securely store your NFTs.
Web3 open-source marketplace is used to build Seaport, upon which OpenSea operates. This allows OpenSea to have a vast collection of NFTs, mining functionality, transparent transactions, NFT creation, customization, community interaction, and high security. As of now, OpenSea has also incorporated the Wyvern protocols with the Seaport protocol to increase efficiency and further reduce transaction costs.
Conclusion
OpenSea is an NFT marketplace that allows millions of NFT enthusiasts to gather, trade NFTs, and interact with each other. The NFT collection of OpenSea includes digital art, music, virtual land, crypto collectibles, membership passes, and many more.
OpenSea has opened a gate to various NFT marketplaces, kick-starting a new digital era. Even though there are various new marketplaces and competitors, OpenSea continues to be the largest marketplace with over 3 million users.
OpenSea was able to make NFT transfers and ownership of digital assets, a walk in the park. By incorporating Polygon and Solana blockchain into the usually preferred Ethereum network, OpenSea was able to bring down the gas fees by a huge margin.
OpenSea has changed the face of digital art and ownership. Over the years, OpenSea is expected to redefine the e-commerce space.
