OpenSea

NFT Marketplace - OpenSea 2.5% service fee
opensea.io logo

Name: OpenSea

Description: OpenSea is one of the largest NFT marketplaces out there. It has an intuitive signup process and is renowned for its broad NFT offerings.

Offer price: 0.0

Currency: $

Operating System: "Windows", "OSX", "Android"

Application Category: NFT Marketplace

Author: NFTsExpert

Overall
4.7
  • Fees
    (4.3)
  • Features
    (5)
  • Categories
    (4.9)

Our Verdict

We find that OpenSea provides an overall intuitive experience. Having a mobile app certainly separates it from the pack and allows for purchase, trade, and sale, from the convenience of literally anywhere with an internet connection.

We are satisfied with the security measures implemented and the tremendous representation of NFT types present. From where we stand, the only real drawbacks are the lack of non-crypto payment methods and the limited support available.

Pros

  • There is a generous spread of NFT collectibles that users may engross themselves in
  • Gas fees are non-existent for creators before users make initial project purchases
  • Payment method options provided are incredibly vast, including a host of cryptocurrencies
  • The earning potential for creators is not capped at the original sale, since royalty percentages of up to 10% of secondary sales are implemented
  • Account creation is an incredibly simple process

Cons

  • Crypto wallet required for payment processing
  • No accepted non-crypto payment methods
  • Customer support is not as extensive as one would like
  • While royalty implementation is welcome, the amount is low compared to some competitors

OpenSea is one of several digital marketplaces that allow for the trading of NFTs. Some of the items that you can trade include trading cards, music, and art. As one of the largest NFT marketplaces in the world, you can imagine the kind of traffic that goes through it. One of the benefits that the NFT creators look forward to is the royalties that they gain from their token values.

Having earnings not cut off upon an initial sale is always a plus. Of course, when you have decentralized exchanges such as these, there is always the concern of the safety level associated with using them.

OpenSea is particularly attentive to this, as it aims to provide an environment that is not only conducive to the purchase, trade, and sale of NFTs, but also provides one in which it is safe to carry out any of these actions.

What Is OpenSea?

As you’ve likely already gathered, OpenSea is one of many marketplaces that focus on non-fungible tokens. Once you have an Ethereum wallet, you can use the platform to purchase, trade, or sell a very respectable variety of NFT types.

Additionally, if you are on the content creator side of the platform, feel free to create NFT collections that you may then sell on the primary market. Compared to some of the competitors out there, one of the appeals of OpenSea is the lower fee charges than the norm.

Initially, it was nothing more than a marketplace for CryptoKitties in 2017. However, based on the spread of collectibles available today, you can easily see the level of expansion the platform has undergone. Virtual game items, domain names, art, music, and trading cards are just a few of the most prominent options that you may see.

The total number of payment options for you to enjoy is 241, though they are all crypto-based.

OpenSea Features

NFT Types

The NFT types offered by OpenSea are way too vast to cover here. However, some of the most prominent are art, assets from various virtual worlds, trading cards, domain names, utility tokens, and video game items.

To give you an idea of the kind of breadth you are dealing with, almost every NFT-related project since 2017 has some form of representation on OpenSea. Of these, however, art is the most popular of the bunch by a huge margin, Of course, this category spans videos, gifts, or images that have been digitized within the blockchain.

Token Standard Used in the Platform

If you want to conduct transactions on OpenSea, you are going to need a wrapped ETH or WETH token. Put simply, it must be an ERC-20, ERC-721, or ERC-1155 compatible version of Ethereum. Note that if your OpenSea wallet contains ETH, there is built-in functionality to help you convert it to WETH.

Network/Token Used

Mainly, the network tokens used consist of Ethereum, DAI, and USDC. There is, however, cross-blockchain support on Ethereum, Klaytn, and Polygon

Does It Have Gas Fees?

Gas fees are indeed present but generally make no appearance until an initial sale takes place. Even so, they are nothing too steep.

Can You Buy an NFT with a Credit or Debit card

At this time, credit and debit cards are not supported on the OpenSea Platform.

How OpenSea Works

As mentioned before, you’re dealing with a decentralized marketplace in OpenSea. It capitalizes on smart contracts created for the purchase and sale of distinguishable digital assets. The purpose of the smart contract implementation is to allow implicit protection for creators, as, without it, there may be challenges in custody maintenance.

Transactions are made directly between purchases and sellers on the blockchain. However, OpenSea plays the role of the facilitator in these exchanges. By capitalizing on Ethereum’s open-source blockchain in addition to the token standards mentioned above, adequate confirmation can take place to verify ownership of listed assets.

Note that with the introduction of the Polygon blockchain, trading can be done efficiently, quickly, and without the worry of steep pricing.

Our OpenSea Analysis

We would have no business providing you a review of OpenSea if we didn’t go ahead and jump into the platform ourselves. To this end, we opened our account using an email address that provides no distinguishable link to a single person. The information below provides you with some insight into our testing process and what we concluded as we went through it.

The actual account creation process is not one we find to be prohibitive at all. In fact, it was quite welcoming. Nevertheless, it does take a little getting used to before you properly understand how the transaction conducting aspect works.

The Signup Process

in creating your account, you need only go through a few simple steps, that begin with visiting OpenSea’s official website. It begins with verifying a captcha to prove that you are not a robot. Once you’ve done so, you may notice a “create” button at the top of the page that you use to indicate you are interested in setting one up.

Once there, enter the few details requested and check your email to complete verification. Note that if you already have an account, you would simply login instead of creating one.

From there, you can add your ETH to your desired crypto wallet, which then allows you to begin making purchases by clicking on NFT listings. You can search for them by keywords, timestamp, or even rarity.

Note that you’re not necessarily asked for all your payment details upon signup. Instead, it’s when you find an NFT that you’re interested in and you select the “Buy and Pay” option, that you become required to provide these.

You can view the whole process from creation to NFT search as a simple four-step flow as indicated below.

  • Create your account
  • Check your email
  • Learn about the platform
  • Start browsing NFTs

Ease of Use

We wouldn’t say that we had a particularly difficult time overall using OpenSea, though not everything is as straightforward as the simple account creation process that was highlighted above. For example, let’s look at the purchase process from beginning to end briefly.

First, you must visit a currency exchange to purchase the ETH that you plan to use to pay for your NFT transactions. When on the site, you choose from a wallet from the listed options, and it gives you several prompts that you use to install it. From there, you add the ETH To this crypto wallet.

Your next step is to search for the NFT you want to purchase, and you can select it by clicking on its name or its thumbnail image. Thankfully, as indicated above, with filtering options present, you can get pretty granular in your search.

You are allowed to verify your purchase details before either bidding or buying. Once you’ve confirmed your intention, you are then taken to a form to enter your payment details. Here, you must pay keen attention to the amount of ETH you’re going to be charged, as well as the NFT token address.

You then need to verify your transaction with your seed phrase or private key before submitting. Thankfully, any pending transaction can easily be canceled and restarted later. Provided the whole operation is successful, your OpenSea dashboard shows your purchased NFTs.

As you can see, it’s quite a bit to take in, though you can use the help center to submit support tickets at any time. The only challenge is that the support available is on the limited side of the spectrum.

So, overall, while there are certainly straightforward aspects of the OpenSea experience, there are more tedious ones that put its overall ease of use somewhere in the middle.

Reputation

OpenSea’s reputation precedes it, which would explain why it continues to maintain the track of exponential growth it has up to this time. It has been and continues to remain one of the biggest decentralized NFT marketplaces in the industry right now. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned NFT veteran, it’s a great option for those who are interested in the purchase, sale, or trade of NFT tokens.

Some people are not necessarily huge fans of crypto-only payment methods, but this is a minor inconvenience at best. Additionally, even with the security functionality in place, everyone generally understands that you must pay attention and visually verify transactions to ensure all your purchases are from legitimate sources.

Overall, you could say that OpenSea is regarded quite highly among existing and potential users.

Platform Safety

We would say that OpenSea does its best from a security standpoint. First, its site is encrypted using an SSL certificate, which prevents malicious entities from capturing usage and transaction data.

Credentials are also stored securely, and you never have to worry about the limited information you enter being sold or traded to any third parties.

Beyond the basics, measures have also been implemented to mitigate scams and malicious content. Even so, you can likely understand and appreciate that the platform can do so much and no more.

Therefore, it does encourage its members to conduct some research on content creators before purchasing any NFTs. There is a verification system present, and OpenSea advises is all its patrons to stick with verified content creators.

An important point to note here is that several OpenSea clones are popping up and they may continue to do so over time. So, you want to ensure that the site you’re using is “opensea.io,” and of course, there is never an instance in which you want to share your wallet’s recovery phrase.

Transparency

Transparency is also not an area of concern on the OpenSea. The greatest ambiguity you may probably face is an initial lack of clarity associated with the purchase process until you’ve gone through it a couple of times. As far as data being captured, fees, and the like, you’re never going to feel like you are in the dark about what is happening.

NFT Minting

Minting is facilitated in OpenSea If you are on the content creator side of the spectrum, then you’re going to be happy to know that no fee is charged for the actual minting process. Nevertheless, there is a 2.5% service fee associated with each sale, which is not necessarily the highest, when compared to other options on the market.

The Mobile App

Initially, OpenSea was a web-only platform. However, as of October 2021, you can now use it in the palm of your hand through its very well-designed mobile app. This is quite a big step, considering that most NFT marketplaces are not available in this way.

OpenSea NFT Storage

The wallets supported by OpenSea include:

  • WalletLink
  • OperaTouch
  • Torus
  • Kaikas
  • Bitski
  • Authereum
  • Venly
  • Portis
  • Coinbase Wallet
  • MetaMask
  • TrustWallet
  • Fortmatic/Magic
  • WalletConnect

Fees

On OpenSea, buyers pay 2.5% on the marketplace for NFT purchases. While no listing fee is required, a creator has the choice of accepting a fee on the final sale, though there is no requirement to do so.

Our Verdict of OpenSea

Overall, we are pleased with our OpenSea experience. Setting up the account was pretty straightforward, and we feel like the platform is intuitive for the most part. Our biggest gripe would be the somewhat longwinded purchase process, though it does boil down to muscle memory as you do it repeatedly.

What we would change most is pushing for other payment methods including credit cards and PayPal, especially considering Opensea’s image of making NFTs more accessible. Nevertheless, it’s not hard to see why the platform has the reputation it does, and we would certainly recommend it.