OpenSea is a decentralised marketplace where people can buy, sell or trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs) such as music, art, collectables, and gaming items.
It is the first NFT marketplace in the world and also the largest. It aims to empower NFT creators and entrepreneurs by improving people’s understanding of digital ownership.
Alex Atallah and Devin Finzer launched OpenSea in January 2018, and since then, the number of NFT marketplaces has grown significantly.
In January 2022, OpenSea recorded more than $3.5 billion in NFT trading volume — about 12,000% more than the $21 million trading volume in 2020.
The contributions of big investors like Mark Cuban, Gary Vaynerchuk, Kevin Durant, and Chamath Palihapitiya played a huge role in this increased level of activity.
How trading on OpenSea happens
OpenSea works like eBay, but for NFTs. There are millions of unique digital assets you can buy on OpenSea, which the platform allows you to search for by category.
You do not necessarily have to trust the person you are trading with; you don’t even have to trust the OpenSea platform.
Why? Because smart contracts based on blockchain technology take care of your transactions. So, there’s no way to change the system to favour one person over the other.
Also, OpenSea transactions are atomic — the whole transaction either happens or none at all.
In regular contracts, two people decide to buy, sell, or exchange an item. If one person changes their mind about anything, the contract might need some adjustments.
However, on OpenSea, the smart contract either happens as agreed or doesn’t happen. And if it happens, the contract is binding on both parties.
This happens because OpenSea uses a Wyvern Protocol, a collection of smart contracts that are audited and tested in the real world.
So, it allows users to exchange NFTs for cryptocurrencies. When a person sells an NFT, they receive payment in crypto, and the NFT is transferred to the buyer.
How to trade on OpenSea
You need a wallet like Metamask to buy or sell on every NFT marketplace, including OpenSea. The wallet lets you interact with the blockchain and make or receive payments.
After setting up your wallet, you connect to the OpenSea marketplace and unlock it. On your OpenSea account page, you can see any owned assets.
The important thing is to have enough cryptocurrency in your wallet to pay for the NFT you want to buy and the transaction fees. Ether (ETH) is the default currency on OpenSea.
You will find all the available items on the ‘Browse’ page. You can use the search bar to look for an NFT by entering its name into the search bar or by using sorting and filtering options called pills.
The top collections and trending items automatically appear at the top of the search results. You can also filter by collection, currency, or shareable traits.
How to know the status of an NFT on OpenSea
OpenSea has the following six special status pills at the top of the sidebar:
- On Sale
You click this pill to view items currently on sale.
2. Has Offers
This pill allows you to filter the search results to display items that already have offers from other buyers.
3. Pre-Sale
When you click this pill, it filters the search results for pre-sale items. Users who want to buy in-game features before the actual game is released are often interested in this option.
4. Has Bounty
You click this to find items you can earn a reward for if you refer someone else to buy them.
5. Auctions
This pill shows items on active English auctions.
6. Bundles
The Bundle pill allows you to search for listings with several items.
If you’re a first-time buyer, it is good to start with something cheap, so you don’t lose too much money if something goes wrong.
