What Is OpenSea? A Look at the Largest NFT Marketplace

[vc_empty_space height=”20px”]Have you heard of OpenSea? Do you know what it is or what it has to offer you as a consumer? Take a look at this quick guide to using OpenSea to better understand the benefits it can provide you. 

Whether you’re new to the platform or have dabbled already and just want to learn more, there’s plenty to check out with this versatile program.

Keep reading to learn more about this online marketplace. 

What Is OpenSea Anyway?

OpenSea is one of the world’s first and largest marketplaces for NFTs. It’s a platform where members can discover, collect, and sell NFTs. Essentially, it’s a space in which you can buy and trade cryptocurrency. 

As for NFTs, if you aren’t familiar with them, the acronym stands for non-fungible token. It’s a specific category of cryptocurrency wherein the values are not necessarily the same. In the way that every dollar is worth the same amount of value, NFTs differ. Each type of coin, artwork, or whatever other form the NTF is, has its own value, allowing them to be completely unique.

In other cases, the values are the same, but certain identifiers make the coins unique to one another. Some even have more than one unique identifier. 

Similarly, cryptocurrency that falls within the category of fungible tokens all has the same values. Bitcoin, for instance, is a fungible token. Every Bitcoin has the same value as the next.

But when dealing with NFTs, the value will differ from piece to piece. This is done for a few reasons.

One, it’s an added level of fun to find NFTs of strange or increased value amounts. Users will continue to trade and collect, looking for more unique values or numbers that may have a special association. This adds a layer of fun to crypto trading.

Next, NFTs can be tracked and traded from day one. Because they have their own unique value, it has an added way to identify it between owners. In addition to tracking numbers, the value itself is a way to trade crypto. 

What’s Better: Fungible Tokens or NFTs?

There is really no right or wrong answer as to what’s better. Rather, it’s best to assess your goals and determine which type of digital coin will best suit your needs. Which do you prefer? 

By pairing goals and preferences, you can best assess what type of crypto token to use going forward. You can also collect both for a portfolio that holds more variety, or try both and find that you like one over the other. In any case, this is a great way to gain peace of mind that you’ve made the right choice and are ready to move forward with your preferred crypto methods.

When NFTs Aren’t Money at All

Other times, NFTs are not funds but something else of value, like trading cards, virtual real estate, or tracing a meme to its original source. This is a growing market of items being taken over by new generations, specifically Gen Z users who are more apt to buy digital items than physical ones. 

These are things of value, but not necessarily funds in and of itself. Instead, the NFTs are used to distinguish them as an original source. This keeps replicas from being made and helps authenticate the original. 

Users come to OpenSea with all types of goals, from those who are looking for specific types of items to those who simply want to browse. Users come for all purposes and are able to check out categories that interest them. 

That’s just one more reason it’s easy to use OpenSea. NFT trading covers many topics, and this is a single platform in which you can trade digital items. Better yet is that they can still be tracked, whether they are digital coins or otherwise. With blockchain technology that covers items of all kinds, you can rest assured about trading with ease. 

How To Best Use OpenSea

When using OpenSea, you’ll have to make an account. Sign up by providing your name, contact information, and anything else required to get your account up and running. 

Next, you’ll enter information for your digital wallet. OpenSea will automatically search your wallet for NFTs. OpenSea makes it easy by diving in and listing out your digital products in one easy-to-find location.

From there, you can determine what you want to do next, whether that be trade, sell, or buy more NFTs. There are, however, a few rules about what can be traded and who maintains ownership after a transaction.

OpenSea allows the selling and trading of collectibles, game items, and any other virtual goods—so long as they are secured by some type of blockchain. Through OpenSea, anyone with an account can buy or sell these items by way of a contract. That means tracking what they purchased, even if they choose to sell it in the future. 

It’s one of the first and largest marketplace of its kind. However, there are rules about who can trade and what it means once you list an item for sale or trade. All items must be 100% digital and tokenized. There is no shipping of physical items, as you can use only digital items on the site. 

Once a person buys the item, it’s 100% theirs. There are no setups for multiple owners, no goods and no royalties. The transactions themselves are also proof of ownership of each item. That transaction is stored forever on the blockchain and can be referenced for years to come. If there is ever a dispute, the blockchain can be referenced for proof of ownership. 

OpenSea was founded in 2018 and has been advancing since its opening day. Various blockchain coin companies also have partnering aspirations within the company. 

The Types of Items Traded on OpenSea

You can sell a few different types of things on OpenSea. In addition to coins and digital goods, folks can sell collectibles, game items, and more. If an item can be stored digitally, chances are it can be traded and sold on OpenSea.

Ownership is traded via intelligent contracts that keep all contracts secure. Assets to be traded live on the blockchain, and created on the Ethereum blockchain, then land as the new owner’s property, where they can be viewed at any time. 

It really is the eBay for online items! This makes it a great platform to browse for new items that interest you or just to take a look at what’s available in these markets. Learn about how you can trade, browse, or buy online via OpenSea when you set up a free account. 

Dive In

OpenSea is easy to use and accessible to the masses. If you have a digital wallet, you can use OpenSea to browse, buy, sell, and trade various digital goods. It’s the largest platform of its kind to sell digital items online. This allows for wider access to unique items, whether you’re seriously looking to buy or are just in the market to browse and see what you can find. 

This is one of the best ways to shop or sell NFTs on the Internet. Because each item is equipped with at least one completely unique identifier, you can track what you own at any given time or who owned anything specific over the course of its existence. With these identifiers in place, all of this can be tracked and is public knowledge via blockchain. 

If you are in the market for digital collectibles or are considering trading digital tokens, OpenSea is a great way to go. Because the platform is easy to use and readily accessible by all, it makes NFT trading that much easier, whether you’re doing so as a hobby or if it’s something more dedicated. 

Whether you have experience in NFTs or are looking to get started from the ground up, OpenSea is a platform that can allow you to do just that. 

To learn more about trading NFTs and how you can get started today, take a look at our previous posts.

Sources:

OpenSea, amid insider trading controversy, rolls out NFT app | CNBC 

What Is Cryptocurrency? | Forbes Advisor 

What are NFTs and why are some worth millions? | BBC