OpenSea Announces Smart NFT Marketplace Seaport

On May 20, OpenSea unveiled Seaport, a brand new Web3 NFT marketplace for trading popular token collections. The new decentralized protocol is not just for OpenSea, but all developers, content creators, and collectors can build on it.

Seaport is taking a different approach to the standard model of NFT trading, which involves a platform facilitating a deal between seller and buyer.

Sellers can agree to supply a number of items in the ERC-20, ERC-721, or ERC-1155 format, which will be known as the “offer.” The “consideration” is when several items are received by the buyer. However, the process will be automated and governed by the decentralized smart contract, according to the announcement.

“Every Seaport listing consists of the same basic structure, including an improved EIP-712 signature payload that clearly outlines what can be spent and what will be received back by whom.”

Introducing Seaport, a brand new web3 marketplace protocol for safely and efficiently buying and selling NFTs.

With an emphasis on flexibility and optimizations, Seaport has been built to support new and evolving use-cases for where NFTs are heading.https://t.co/3lUQIQm0km

— OpenSea (@opensea) May 20, 2022

Automated NFT Marketplace

The announcement explained how exactly Seaport would facilitate the transactions by using “fulfillments” to ensure they are processed correctly.

It added that the new system eliminates redundant transfers, which are usually the most gas-intensive, and allows for “novel and efficient transactions.”

There are several other functions such as “zones” and “channels” that improve the transaction process, allow for bartering, and prevent abuse of the system. Seaport also supports “tipping,” which allows alternative interfaces to include their own fees and facilitates dynamic listings.

The firm added that the platform is completely decentralized and open source:

“OpenSea does not control or operate the Seaport protocol — we will be just one, among many, building on top of this shared protocol.”

Seaport has been audited by OpenZeppelin, and they are also starting a two-week audit contest with code4rena with a $1 million prize pool.

NFT Ecosystem Outlook

The NFT space has contracted in terms of sales this month as crypto markets continue to take a beating. According to market tracker Nonfungible, USD sales figures are down from over $60 million per day in early May to around $25 million as of May 20.

The number of sales was more than 100,000 per day at the beginning of the month, but that had slumped to around 23,000 by the end of last week.

Cryptoslam reports that the Otherdeed Metaverse land NFT collection has been the most popular over the past seven days, with around $27 million in secondary sales for the period.