OpenSea Introduces Seaport Protocol for NFT

[TL; DR]
OpenSea launched Seaport, an NFT marketplace, on 20 May 2022.
On Seaport, traders can exchange NFTs with other digital assets.
Examples of OpenSea’s competitors are Rarible, Superare, Foundation, Mintable and Gate.io.
NFT Magic Box allows NFT creators and other artists to mint NFTs for free.
Keywords: OpenSea, Seaport, NFTs, marketplace, Gate.io, Initial NFT Offering, NFT Magic Box

On 20 May OpenSea launched Seaport, a marketplace where people trade popular NFTs, exchanging them for a collection of collectibles as well as cryptocurrency. Seaport is different from other NFT marketplaces as the platform offers buyers and sellers the room to initiate and finalise offers. As an example, sellers can offer several digital assets, such as ERC-20, ERC-721, or ERC-1155, in exchange for an NFT or NFTs.

Definitely, Seaport brings something new to the NFT ecosystem. Whereas previously NFT traders would only accept cryptocurrencies in exchange for NFTs, now they can use other types of collectibles. Nevertheless, the smart contract governs this trading system in line with an established set of rules and terms. To clarify, a smart contract automates an agreement reached between two or more parties. By using smart contracts, the parties eliminate the involvement of third parties.

In its blog post, OpenSea explained how the system works: “Offerers can agree to supply a number of ETH / ERC20 / ERC721 / ERC1155 items — this is the “offer.” What this means is that the recipient should receive a number of the assets which the offerer promises for the offer to stand- this is the ‘consideration.’


Why is Seaport different

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The question which many users have is: how different Seaport is from other NFT marketplace? Apart from the payment made using various assets there are other associated services.

In addition to being a safe and efficient platform for people to trade NFTs, Seaport offers flexibility to people who want to buy and sell NFTs. As an instance, this marketplace is automated as it will use ‘fulfilments’ for proper executions of transactions. To achieve this, Seaport listing comprises an efficient EIP-712 signature payload which dictates what will be paid and received per transaction.

There is also room for traders to specify the criteria they want for an NFT or the type of assets they prefer to get for their offers. For example, a user can choose to sell Bored Ape for an assortment of collectibles such as CryptoPunk and ETH. Thus, as already mentioned above, they can use a combination of assets to purchase NFTs.


The other functions include ‘zones’ and ‘channels’earmarked to improve trade on the platform. These ‘zones’ and channels enable barter transactions on the marketplace as well as eliminating or reducing the abuse of the protocol. In relation to bartering, traders can now exchange one NFT for another.

Moreover, the system supports tipping, thereby enabling other interfaces to set their own prices. This also creates room for dynamic listing of NFTs on the platform. With regard to this, it is important to note that Seaport is a completely decentralized and open source protocol. This means that other blockchain projects can build their systems on it.

The other advantage of Seaport is its capability to stop redundant transfers which end in higher transaction fees.


Seaport, Opensea’s tool to fight competition

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There is no doubt that there is high competition in the NFT market which calls for marketplaces to introduce unique features or infrastructure to increase their competitiveness. As such, Opensea could have developed Seaport to counter the stiff competition in the industry. Truly, the new features Seaport has may prove essential to Opensea in its fight against competition. We have already talked of tipping, use of collections of assets to purchase NFTs as well as trading one NFT for another. These are all game-changers in the NFT sector.

However, recently Opensea did other activities to fight competition. For example, it acquired Gem, an NFT marketplace aggregator, to boost its market presence.


Current marketplace

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There are several considerations OpenSea could have made in its quest to further enhance its dominance on the market. According to DappRadar, Magic Den, a marketplace existing on the Solana blockchain witnessed high NFT daily trading volumes which, at times, surpassed that of OpenSea. In contrast, the daily NFT trading volumes of Opensea has decreased in the recent past. With this information, it is worth noting that there has been a reduction of the trading activities of NFTs in recent months, a trend which is inline with that of cryptocurrencies.


OpenSea competitors

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Having briefly discussed competition in the NFT sector, let’s look at some of Opensea’s major competitors.

Rarible: It is a marketplace for various types of NFTs. People can trade Art NFTs, music, videos and collectibles.


Superare: Like Rarible, Superare is a marketplace for NFTs covering categories such as music, art, videos and 3D images.

Foundation: Apart from being a marketplace for NFTs, people can also mint them at the platform. However, it has strict conditions. For instance, a person can only mint his/her NFT following an invitation by someone who is already a member of the Foundation community.

NiftyGate: Many popular NFTs have been traded on this platform. Examples of the best contributors to the platform are Beeple and singer Grimes. And, it is beyond doubt that Beeple is one of the most well-known and respected NFT artists of all time.

Mintable: This platform supports NFT artists of various types including musicians and photographers. Since billionaire Mark Cuban backs it, it is one of the most promising competitors for OpenSea NFT marketplace.

Gate.io: Although this may seem a surprising inclusion among the top NFT marketplaces, Gate.io records large daily transaction volumes of NFT. Despite being a popular centralized crypto exchange, Gate.io has its own NFT marketplace called NFT Magic Box where Individuals can buy and sell various types of NFTs.

One key advantage of Gate.io as an NFT marketplace is that many people trust it since it is a centralized exchange and has offered great service to its community over the past years. Obviously, we cannot overemphasize the safety standards, integrity and transparency of NFT Magic Box in particular and Gate.io in general.

On the NFT Magic Box, people can mint their NFTs or take part in NFT auctions. For those who want to purchase NFTs, there is a special section for featured offerings, which are popular collections.


NFT Magic Box has another trending feature, INO (Initial Coin Offering). This innovative feature enables NFT creators and artists to upload their NFTs with the aim of getting grants and marketing support. However, NFT Magic Box does not accept all uploaded NFTs. Instead, it has strict selection criteria. Also, the initially selected NFTs will go for community review. Only NFTs which are upvoted by the community receive the grants.

Having discussed the INO, it is clear that Gate.io is a favorite platform for novice NFT creators who need financial and marketing assistance. By the way, the NFTs are listed on the platform allowing investors to notice and purchase them.


Conclusion

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Seaport is a protocol which enables trading one NFT for another. This is a deviation from the current practice where people can only buy NFTs using cryptocurrencies such as ETH. As Seaport is open source, other web3 projects can exist on it. Some analysts believe that Seaport is a means which Opensea uses to maintain its dominance on the NFT market since it has many competitors which include Gate.io, Superare, Rarible and Mintable, among others.






Author: Mashell C., Gate.io Researcher
This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.