In the past few years, there has been a rapid increase in demand for investment vehicles. From Bitcoin’s manic rise to power to other crypto assets like Ethereum and Dogecoin creating their own stamp in the market.
While these are the baseline currencies that make up the current market, the ability to actually use any of these currencies in transactions remains slim. NFTs (or Non-fungible Tokens) allow crypto-enthusiasts the opportunity to invest and spend their hard-earned cryptocurrency in other types of tradeable assets.
OpenSea aims to help facilitate this growing market of NFTs by providing a platform for users to quickly jump on to make, purchase, and sell NFTs quickly. Let’s see what OpenSea has to offer in this quick review of its features, pricing, and other related capabilities.
Before you continue, you may want to watch this video by Lite Liger on YouTube that gives a quick overview. Afterward, you’ll want to read the rest of the article for a more comprehensive review of OpenSea.
What is OpenSea? OpenSea And Metamask
OpenSea was developed in early 2018 by Devin Finzer and Alex Attalah. Both had extensive technology backgrounds at Google and Palantir. Not only that, but they’ve also previously worked on two successful businesses, Claimdog, and hostess.fm, which have been sold to larger parent companies since their inception.
Their store of OpenSea directly follows the inception of CryptoKitiies, a 2017 crypto-asset that gave rise to what would then be developed as the modern NFT. OpenSea was built through lean collaboration and an eagerness to invest in exciting new technologies.
What is an NFT market place?
An NFT marketplace allows you to buy and sell digitally-created goods. Like any good digital asset, they’re tradeable. They can be used across different platforms, but their Blockchain-induced scarcity makes NFTs unique.
Scarcity has long plagued the issue of digital goods due to the inherent capability to copy and duplicate any digital item, making the creation of digital art and other collectible memorabilia tricky in the sense that their scarcity is only limited either by release limitation or by platform controls.
With NFTs, you can control the scarcity by providing a digital non-fungible token– that is, a wholly unique ID token– and attach it to your creations to certify that one as the original. This functionality has opened the gate to how people can start buying, selling, and even investing in digital art they value. From virtual experiences, sports memorabilia, and even digital clothing, NFTs have only expanded in breadth and width ever since its soft inception in 2017.
> > Click Here to Explore OpenSea < <
What is OpenSea Doing Differently?
OpenSea’s primary focus is its drive to put this new technology within reach of all digital creators out there. If you’re a digital artist, you can utilize the OpenSea platform and list your work without having to pay any commission or usage fees. It’s similar to how traditional e-commerce websites like eBay work, where sellers can regularly post items for sale without having to pay anything in the way of a consignment fee.
OpenSea is a great choice for artists and other creators because of its sheer size. Since its inception, it has grown to be the largest NFT market available online, increasing the chances for interested buyers to find and invest in your work. They even have the mobile app available for iOS devices so you can transact on the go.
Managing said transactions is much easier with OpenSea’s Collection Manager, giving users the ability to mint and sell NFTs with no attached fees.
Does OpenSea Have Any Costs?
OpenSea must generate revenue to keep its operations going and the platform operating. As is typical with other NFT marketplaces, OpenSea charges a percentage of the NFT’s price as an additional selling fee on top of any transaction. This additional fee is usually paid by the buyer, allowing the sellers to reap the full benefits of their price. The buyer will pay $102.5 for a $100 NFT. This is in addition to the NFT’s listed price.
Sellers can even attach an additional fee on top of the price if they deserve an artist’s fee for their work. Suppose they don’t feel like adding extra fees. They can opt for the NFTs’ built-in royalty system. That means that any subsequent sale of your NFT after your initial sale will still generate yours at a max of 10% of the sale price.
Take note, though, that, unlike other NFT marketplaces, OpenSea does not accept payment in the form of bank deposits, credit or debit cards, and Paypal. OpenSea transactions require you to have an existing wallet that is compatible with the Ethereum network. There are many wallets available, but trustWallet, MetaMask and Coinbase are some of the most popular.
> > Click Here to Explore OpenSea < <
OpenSea is easy to use
OpenSea’s platform makes it easy to use. It can display bids and auction times, in different ways. You start off with a gallery page of different NFT art available. They can be purchased using either the traditional auction process or a faster “Buy Now” option, similar to eBay’s sales.
You can view and follow different artists as well. Some artists may have additional biographies or anecdotes about the meaning and purpose behind their work. You can also view information about each listing’s cost, available offers, and the price history of the artist.
Open Sea also allows you to create your own NFT (a process known as NFT Minting). Click the Create function on the OpenSea homepage, and then click “Create A Collection.”
Once you are here, you can design the overall logo, banner, and other design elements of your collection and the name for the NFT and even URL layout. Make sure to include any relevant social media links and portfolios to lead prospective buyers to your other work.
You can now set your royalty rates up to 10% and choose which Blockchain you would like to add your NFT (as of this writing, Ehtereum and Polygon are the current Blockchains). You can then designate what token you’d like to accept payment in, either EtH, WITH, DAI, or USDC. You’ll need to verify the transaction with your wallet to allow buyers to send you the payment. OpenSea And Metamask
Click Create to watch your collection space grow. Once the collection is set up, you can add items to it and upload your work up to a maximum of 100MB per file. Add a name to each item you upload and a subsequent description, mark it for sale, and just like that, you’re a certified NFT creator. The NFTs cannot be stored in OpenSea, but in your wallet. Make sure your wallet can support web3!
> > Click Here to Explore OpenSea < <
How To Open An Account
You’ll need to make sure you have a good wallet on hand to properly set up an account. This is a prerequisite to opening an OpenSea Account. However, it is easy to do.
Sign up like any other website with your email, set a password, and begin personalizing your account with a banner and your own personal bio. The OpenSa FAQs has the dimensions guidelines for banners. OpenSea And Metamask
In the past, you had to prove your collection’s validity. Still, OpenSea has since removed this requirement, expanding the searchable items on their website. Profiles with high traffic have the advantage of having “verified status”, which is indicated by a blue-check that confirms their authenticity.
Is OpenSea safe?
As with all the different crypto platforms, safety is always a concern (especially when dealing with potentially large transactions). Like all crypto transactions, OpenSea transactions are secured on the Blockchain. Specifically, Ethereum’s smart contracts allow the platform to instantly facilitate transactions with no needed oversight from third-party auditors. OpenSea And Metamask
OpenSea is also what you would call a non-custodial marketplace. This means that OpenSea does not hold any of your crypto funds on its platform, only moving cryptocurrency from one wallet to another when a transaction takes place. This is all thanks to the above-mentioned smart contracts, keeping everything secure and verifiable.
Last words
OpenSea is a must-have visit for any would-be NFT investor or creator in the market. The fact that it boasts the most extensive collection of NFTs currently and that it has such a simple interface for minting makes it a bit better than other marketplaces currently out there. It also has additional checks and balances to ensure your purchases are secure.
> > Click Here to Explore OpenSea < <
Frequently Asked Questions OpenSea And Metamask
What is an NFT?
An NFT, or Non-fungible token, acts as a certificate that you can attach to digital goods that indicate their authenticity and generates a sort of scarcity on your item. This helps improve value in things, almost to astronomical prices, and reduces the chances of pirated or inauthentic work popping up around different platforms.
Although it isn’t perfect, it has allowed digital artists to start earning from projects that they previously struggled to solve.
What is the Blockchain?
The Blockchain would be the backbone of the entire process that surrounds the making and transacting of any crypto-asset currently in the market. NFTs use the Ethereum blockchain most often (using their smart contracts function), but other crypto assets also have their own blockchains where their transactions take place.
Think of a blockchain as an automated leger– sustained by what’s known to be crypto miners– that can manage, record, and execute deals between parties. In traditional financial settings, this would need third parties to verify the validity of each transaction. Modern technology is almost instantaneous, but back-end operations still rely on audits to ensure that each transaction was conducted in good faith.
The way the Blockchain is set up is that it removes the need for third-party authenticators by having its entire transaction system revolve around the previous transactions. To defraud or duplicate trades within a blockchain, you must decouple and undo all the other transactions that succeeded. This is why Blockchain and the surrounding crypto market are interesting as they act as stepping stones towards the possible future of automated transactions between parties.
Is it possible to make an NFT?
NFTs have become known as the “people’s token” as it allows what was usually a very centralized and exclusive art market to suddenly open up to newcomers and potential disrupters that can create quality artwork and distribute it to fans.
The best part about NFTs is that these distributions would be controlled. Every piece of art will be marked with an NFT token, indicating that it is authentic. This means that anyone can label any piece of art as their own by attaching an NFT receipt. However, abusers can also be found in any new technology. So let’s take the good with the bad.
OpenSea has customer support
Suppose you may need support with your OpenSea account, transactions, or other things related to the platform. You can send an email directly to support@opensea.io in this case. Include in your email a subject line that explains the nature of the problem and details about your account. You can also use their ticket system, and they can be the ones to email you instead.
You may find the FAQs useful if you are having simple problems. One of their many entries may already have the answer to your concern.
