OpenSea is currently the world’s largest and one of the most popular NFT marketplaces. In 2022, the marketplace recorded a $13.3 billion valuation in trading volume, from $3.5 billion and $21 million in 2021 and 2020, respectively. The outrageous increase in trading volume highly signals the platform’s success, all thanks to the explosion of investors and collectors who are fervent about the platform’s services and features. OpenSea is truly a game-changing, highly-rated decentralized NFT marketplace.
To some people, investing in NFTs may seem like a lousy way to spend your money, but little do they know that multiple prominent celebrities and powerhouse investors invest in NFTs. Distinguished investors like Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Durant helped push the valuation of OpenSea to $1 billion, giving the novice NFT marketplace unicorn status.
NFT artists, collectors, investors, and traders give OpenSea a high rating. As a result of OpenSea’s outstanding performance and reliability, they prefer to conduct NFT transactions on the platform compared to other platforms.
But what is OpenSea, and what are its features? To help you understand what NFT and OpenSea are, we prepared this guide that covers the basic features and information related to the platform.
What is NFT and OpenSea?
NFT
It will be difficult to understand what OpenSea does if we don’t know what NFT is. With that, we must first go over what NFT is before thoroughly discussing the OpenSea NFT marketplace. NFT stands for non-fungible tokens, and it represents a unique digital asset on blockchain networks, such as digital artworks, videos, memes, and in-game collectibles, among others. You cannot exchange an NFT for another NFT because these tokens are unique. In other words, if you have an Axie Infinity NFT and someone else owns a CryptoPunk NFT, the both of you cannot interchange or exchange your NFT because they are completely different assets.
Furthermore, nothing can prevent a blockchain user from turning whatever he wants into an NFT. Blockchain users can turn their houses, cars, pets, and other things into NFTs in a process called tokenization. Tokenization is achieved by giving out a digital token that will represent physical or non-physical objects that exist in the real world. The possibility of monetizing digital assets is the real breakthrough of NFT because it opens up different opportunities for brands, artists, and communities to monetize their digital assets and outputs.
NFTs are unlike fungible or replaceable tokens, such as Bitcoin. You can trade fungible tokens because they are not unique. In other words, one Bitcoin is equal to another Bitcoin. You can also liken fungible tokens to traditional real-world currency, where you can trade one dollar bill for another one dollar bill and not lose or gain anything because they’re equal in value.
OpenSea
Aside from being the largest NFT marketplace to date, OpenSea is the first decentralized NFT marketplace established on the Ethereum blockchain. OpenSea links the consumer and infrastructure layers for the economy of digital goods and serves as the primary utility in the new era of digital ownership. Best of all, the platform is a one-stop shop to discover, create, and trade NFT assets that conform to a reliable standard.
Back then, OpenSea was used as a CryptoKitties market but has now become a large marketplace for different NFT assets, including game items, music, domain names, sports assets, trading cards, collectibles, utility NFTs, and art. You must own an Ethereum wallet to use OpenSea and purchase NFTs. The marketplace’s supported wallets include the ever-popular MetaMask, Coinbase, MyEtherWallet, and Trust Wallet, among others.
While OpenSea’s main blockchain is Ethereum, it also supports other blockchains, such as Klaytyn and Polygon, giving your more options. Additionally, the marketplace offers more than 200 crypto-related payment methods. Note that you cannot pay in USD, Euros, or all other real-world currencies.
How does OpenSea work?
Since OpenSea is a marketplace, you can purchase NFTs from other artists, sell your NFTs, and create your own NFT collection. Furthermore, it uses smart contracts in trading because it is a decentralized, blockchain-based marketplace. Smart contracts ensure that no cheating will occur on the platform, and NFT artists can sell their tokens at whatever price they’d like.
Since Ethereum gas fees are notoriously high, OpenSea has introduced the Polygon blockchain to make transactions cheaper and faster.
What are the features of the OpenSea NFT marketplace?
Aside from buying, selling, and trading NFTs, you can do other things on the platform, such as using it to gain insights into the NFT market. Here are some of the features of OpenSea that you can enjoy:
Listing, Creating, and Minting NFTs
One of the best key features of OpenSea is that it provides the tools needed for listing and minting NFTs and the education you, as a user, will need to get through the process. To get started, you must create your NFT collection and upload your work on the platform. Then, share some details regarding your NFT project and a website or social media that is associated with it.
Afterward, you can mint your NFT. Minting is the process of uploading your work to the blockchain to make it purchasable by other users. The most-coveted aspect of this feature is that NFT minting on the platform is completely free, and there’s no limit on how many NFTs you want to mint on your NFT collection.
Multichain Support
As mentioned, Ethereum transactions involving NFT transfers and trades require a fortune due to expensive gas fees plus several other shortcomings. As a result, OpenSea’s Polygon integration is celebrated by NFT investors and sellers. Polygon makes the transfer of Ethereum tokens cost-friendly and hassle-free. Best of all, switching between the networks doesn’t require professional knowledge, so beginners can find it easy to do.
NFT Analytics
Since the NFT market hasn’t been around for a long time yet, the amount of available statistical data and insights may still be limited. Most investors and traders like to look at the history of an NFT asset before purchasing, but digging deeper would require time and effort, especially if you want to look at the data of NFTs simultaneously. Fortunately, OpenSea compiles its NFT-related data and various rankings and analytics tools that you can use to track projects.
Affordable Fees
How much does an NFT cost on OpenSea? While the price of NFT minting is entirely free, OpenSea has a 2.5% transaction fee for every sale an NFT artist makes, and this rate is consistent regardless of how an artist’s NFT sells for. So, whether you can sell an NFT for $200 or $20,000, OpenSea will charge you the same fee. This is a relatively reasonable flat-rate sales fee compared to others.
Furthermore, NFT creators are free to charge a collection fee of up to 10% to earn revenue whenever their NFTs get sold on OpenSea.
Marketplace for Trading NFTs
OpenSea is a peer-to-peer NFT marketplace where creators can sell their digital pieces, and buyers can directly get them via peer-to-peer trades. The platform is popular for having the highest NFT sales among other NFT marketplaces. Additionally, it is user-friendly, and creators don’t have many worries about creating and selling their NFTs, raising funds, and conducting NFT drops for their followers.
More than just trading, OpenSeas users can gift NFTs to other users. What an awesome holiday gifting idea!
Easy Searching
If you already have a particular NFT in mind, you can quickly look for it in OpenSea. The platform has an easy-to-use search bar located on top of the page that you could use to search for NFTs in their massive NFT library. You also have the option to enter the Explore page, where you can check out various NFT choices, and you can filter your search according to item, price, blockchain, status, and more.
Similar to social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, OpenSea utilizes the blue-check-mark verification system. So, if you are planning on purchasing an NFT asset, look for the blue check mark to assure that the NFT you are about to purchase isn’t a copycat or fraudulent project.
How can I get my NFT on OpenSea?
Knowing how to buy NFT on OpenSea is important if you plan to invest in an NFT now or sooner. So, to help you with this, we will be giving away the right process for buying NFT on OpenSea.
1. Click “Buy Now”
Once you have found the NFT you want to purchase, tap that listing and click “Buy Now.”
2. Connect Crypto wallet
Then, you will be prompted to connect to your crypto wallet, such as MetaMask, Coinbase, etc., if you haven’t already. But if, from the very start, you have your crypto wallet all set up and connected, you won’t be asked to accomplish this step.
3. Choose a Payment Method
You will then be asked whether you’d like to pay by crypto or card. If you opt for crypto, make sure to load your crypto wallet with cryptocurrency sufficient for your NFT transaction.
4. Review Fees
When reviewing the fees, you will notice that the sum is higher than the actual price of the NFT you want to purchase, and that is because of the network, a.k.a, gas, fees, and other processing fees for card transactions. OpenSea doesn’t receive the gas fees as it occurs on all blockchain transactions, which vary based on multiple factors.
5. Enter the Payment Info
After reviewing all the fees, you will be prompted to input your payment information to complete the transaction. For first-time card users, you will be asked to verify your identity for security purposes.
6. Purchase Complete!
Once you’ve input all the necessary payment information, click “Pay” and finish the transaction. Your NFT will be written to the blockchain upon officially completing the transaction.
Is the OpenSea app safe?
While OpenSea experienced getting hacked a few times, it is still the best and most reliable NFT marketplace in the digital space. Again, it uses smart contracts to be safe from human manipulation. It also allows its users to use two-factor authentication to secure their accounts to keep them from getting compromised. To answer the question: yes, OpenSea is safe, but you also have to do your part in securing your account and staying cautious when transacting to avoid getting hacked and experiencing other issues.
Is OpenSea a good NFT?
OpenSea is an excellent and attested NFT marketplace. It continues to be the leader in NFT sales, supporting NFT creators and artists. Best of all, it houses the most diverse and largest NFT collections, and with its blue-check verification system, you are sure to get your money’s worth. Thus, if you are thinking of investing in NFT assets, OpenSea is the best marketplace to shop.
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