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 is a platform that allows users to quickly purchase, make, and sell NFTs. Let’s take a quick look at OpenSea’s features and pricing.
Before you continue, you may want to check out this video by Lite Liger on YouTube that gives a quick overview. After, you will want to read the rest of our article for a more comprehensive review of OpenSea.
What is OpenSea? Why Is OpenSea So Expensive
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. Through lean collaboration and a desire to invest in new and exciting technologies, OpenSea was developed into one of the largest general marketplaces for user-owned digital items.
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.
Digital goods have been plagued by scarcity for a long time due to their inherent ability to duplicate and copy any item. This makes it difficult to create digital art or other collectible memorabilia as their scarcity can only be controlled by platform controls or release limitations.
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 allows people to buy, sell, or invest in digital art that 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 is driven to make this technology accessible to all digital creators. This is the primary goal of OpenSea. OpenSea allows digital artists to list their work on the platform without any fees or commissions. This is similar to traditional e-commerce sites like eBay, where sellers can post items to sell regularly without paying any consignment fees.
OpenSea is a great choice for artists and other creators because of its sheer size. It has grown to become the largest NFT marketplace online since its inception. This increases the chance for interested buyers to discover your work and invest. 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. The buyer usually pays this additional fee, which allows sellers to enjoy the full value of their NFTs. This fee comes in at about 2.5% on top of the listed price of the NFT, meaning a $100 NFT will cost the buyer $102.5 to purchase.
Sellers may charge an additional fee if the artist is a worthy buyer. 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. To make transactions on OpenSea, you’ll need to have existing wallets that have compatibility 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.”
You can now design the logo, banner and other elements of your collection, as well as the name for NFT and 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. Why Is OpenSea So Expensive
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. You can add a name and description to each item that you upload, then mark it as for sale. 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.
Register with your email and set a password. Then, personalize your account by adding a banner or your personal bio. You can find the rubric for dimensions allowed for things like banners in the OpenSa FAQs. Why Is OpenSea So Expensive
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 contract allows the platform to facilitate transactions instantly without any oversight from third party auditors. Why Is OpenSea So Expensive
OpenSea can also be described as a non-custodial market. OpenSea doesn’t hold any crypto funds. It only moves cryptocurrency from one wallet into another when there is a transaction. All of this is possible because of the smart contracts mentioned above, which keep everything secure and verifyable.
Final Words
OpenSea is an essential stop for any NFT creator or investor. It is a great marketplace because it offers the largest number of NFTs and has a very simple interface for minting. Plus, it does have some additional checks and balances that can keep your purchases secure.
> > Click Here to Explore OpenSea < <
Most Frequently Asked Questions Why Is OpenSea So Expensive
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?
Blockchain would be the core of the entire process of making and transacting any crypto-asset that is currently on 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.
A blockchain is an automated leger, which is supported by crypto miners. It can manage, record and execute transactions between parties. This would require third parties to verify each transaction in traditional financial environments. Sure the modern age feels almost instant, but back-end operations are still comprised mainly of audits that ensure each transaction was done 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. Each piece of art will have an NFT token attached to it, signifying it as authentic. This means that anyone can label any piece of art as their own by attaching an NFT receipt. But with any new technology comes its abusers, so take the good with some bad in this scenario.
Does OpenSea have Customer Support?
Let’s say you need assistance with your OpenSea account or transactions. 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. They also have a ticket system that you can use to send an email.
If you have simple problems, it may be good to check out the FAQs currently listed on their website. One of their many entries may already have the answer to your concern.
