What is NFT and OpenSea?
A Non-Fungible Token or NFT is a unique digital asset representing real world assets such as music, art and in-game materials with blockchain-based ownership.
There are several different applications of NFTs, and that’s a huge reason why NFT sales volume has increased steadily over the past few years. These non-fungible tokens are sold and bought online, usually with digital currencies and smart contracts, and many have the same software coding as most digital currencies.
The OpenSea NFT Marketplace
OpenSea marketplace, on the other hand, is a decentralized marketplace that allows one to trade NFTs. It’s not the largest NFT marketplace, but it gets the job done. Created in 2017, this NFT marketplace initially started as a place where you could trade Cryptokitties. However, digital art and in game assets have become huge, so it’s now dealing with more than just NFT collections and other unique digital items. It’s currently an exchange for a wide array of digital commodities and currencies, including music, art, game items, and domain names.
Characteristics of this NFT Marketplace
OpenSea operates on the Ethereum blockchain. So buying NFTs on this exchange will require setting up an Ethereum wallet. Getting NFTs on OpenSea will be difficult without one.
NFT collectors and enthusiasts will be happy to hear it has an NFT trading volume of over $4 billion. In addition, you can choose from more than 150 different payment options, which allows almost everyone to buy and sell NFTs on this exchange.
Features of this NFT Market
OpenSea has features that can beat several NFT marketplaces. For NFT gifting, this digital exchange allows users to gift other users on the platform. If you can’t find your friend’s username, you can gift them via their Ethereum address. In addition, friends from other platforms can gift you NFTs as well.
What do OpenSea fees look like? There’s a 2.5% service charge on each digital asset you sell. Sellers will have to pay the gas fees when accepting offers.
The OpenSea team has ensured that OpenSea supports more than a dozen digital wallets, including TrustWallet, Coinbase, and MetaMask. It also supports many blockchains as well, including KLAY (Klatyn) and MATIC (Polygon). Mint NFTs are also allowed on this platform. Seed Phrase is popular.
How does it work?
As highlighted earlier, Opensea runs on the Ethereum network. This means you’ll need a private key to an ETH digital wallet. Private keys are like signatures to a back account in these virtual worlds. Once you’ve got this, pick one of the wallets on the list provided and then add Ethereum tokens to the wallet. Next, search for the assets you want to purchase and click its thumbnail icon.
Takeaway
This Mark Cuban-backed platform is the first and largest NFT exchange for user-owned digital assets, not physical assets. Devin Finzer, its CEO and Co-Founder, has done software engineering for Pinterest and Google. So he understands what it takes to be number one in your given space.
Brett Melville is a SEO consultant at Digital Treasury and a NFT writer.