Over the past year, we have seen a huge spike in cryptocurrencies and NFTs. With many different companies adopting NFTs and creating their own websites, more and more people have been taking the time to learn about them and understand how they work.
Today, we are going to be talking about OpenSea, an NFT marketplace that allows you to buy the crypto-collectibles that you are looking for.
Because there are so many different NFT marketplaces out there that are similar to OpenSea, we feel that it is important to help give you an idea of what to expect. This way you can make the decision yourself on which NFT marketplace you want to use.
Before we jump into our OpenSea review, however, we first want to briefly talk about NFTs and what they are. This way you will have an understanding of what you are getting into if you are planning on using OpenSea.
What are NFTs?
NFT is short for non-fungible token and if you are new to the world of NFTs, that doesn’t help to give you a clearer idea of what they are.
Take something like bitcoin for example; that is fungible. If you trade one bitcoin for another bitcoin, you are going to be getting the exact same thing every time. Each bitcoin is identical to the other.
NFTs on the other hand are completely unique, even if they do represent the same object. No two NFTs are created equally.
Think of them like trading cards for example. Even though you and your friend might own the exact same trading card, they are different in several ways.
First, the trading cards in themselves can be entirely different from each other. The other way they can differ from each other is their edition or what number they are in print. Let’s say for example 1000 NFTs are identically created and listed online.
The NFT that was created first and is #1 in the sequence is going to sell for a lot more money than the NFT that was #1000 in the sequence. Therefore, it is always desirable to get an NFT that is a close to #1 as possible, or has something interesting to go along with its issue number.
The final thing to note with NFTs is that they are run on the Ethereum blockchain. While they are different from the actual Etherum coin, they still have a relation to the company and the technology behind it.
Just like trading cards, NFTs have a market for those who are looking to either collect or invest. As we mentioned earlier, there are plenty of NFT marketplaces online, but for today we are going to be talking about OpenSea and focusing on what it has to offer you as a consumer.
What is OpenSea?
OpenSea is a completely decentralized P2P (peer-to-peer) marketplace that allows you to sell and buy NFTs.
Created in 2017, OpenSea has steadily grown to become one of many popular NFT marketplaces for people to choose from.
Before OpenSea was created, most people would trade NFTs through over-the-counter deals. These types of deals can be quite risky as it is easy to get scammed by another person and lose either your NFTs or your money.
With the creation of NFTs, a marketplace was now invented where people could easily bid on NFTs that they were interested in and have them exchanged instantly as soon as they were purchased.
If you are looking to trade and swap NFTs with another person, OpenSea is also one of the best websites for that. With a very friendly user interface, it is incredibly easy to find what you are looking for, get in contact with a seller, and make a deal.
How To Use OpenSea?
Using OpenSea is incredibly easy and you should get the hang of it rather quickly. Once you have created your account on OpenSea, you are going to want to connect your web3 wallet to the website. From there, OpenSea is going to scan the wallet for any NFTs or collectibles along with coins that can be used to purchase items off the marketplace.
Once you have done that, it’s time for you to start browsing the market and finding the NFTs that you want. There is a search bar at the top of OpenSea that allows for easy navigation along with a marketplace tab to allow you to browse.
Once you have found an NFT you are interested in, you have an option to either enter an offer or purchase it now. OpenSea is very similar to eBay in this regard and if you are familiar with eBay, this entire system should be fairly straightforward for you.
If you want to sell items on OpenSea, you are going to want to navigate over to the “My Items” tab and select the items that you want to sell.
Once you have done this, OpenSea will allow you to set the price of the NFT, the type of offering it is, and how long you want the NFT to be listed on the marketplace. It’s quite an easy system to use.
We do have to note that OpenSea does have a 2.5% fee on the final sale price so make sure that you are factoring that in.
Our Thoughts on OpenSea
After using OpenSea for a bit, we were quite impressed with how easy it was to use. We were able to connect our wallet fairly quickly to the website and with our Ethereum we were able to find NFTs and make purchases. Overall, we think OpenSea is a great NFT marketplace for those who are looking to buy, sell, or trade tokens.
The final thing that we love about OpenSea? You can browse the marketplace without even having an account. If you simply want to check out how the OpenSea marketplace works and looks, you can easily just head over to their website and start searching around.
This makes for an overall great user experience and we would recommend OpenSea if you are looking for a decentralized peer-to-peer NFT marketplace.
