What is OpenSea? how to start, NFT purchase / listing method, gas fee, etc.!
OpenSea is the platform with the largest trading volume in the world among many NFT marketplaces.
In January 2022, the monthly transaction volume on the Ethereum chain will exceed $4.8 billion, and the number of monthly active users may exceed 200,000*. *Both monthly transaction volume and monthly active users are based on Dune Analytics research.
This time, we will explain the basic information and how to use OpenSea, which is such a popular platform.
Find out in this article
1. Basic information of OpenSea such as the types of NFT’s handled and supported chains
2. Fees for using OpenSea
3. How to start trading NFT’s on OpenSea
4. How to List NFT’s on OpenSea
When using OpeSea, virtual currency such as Ethereum is required for the purchase price and gas fee (network fee).
Table of contents
1) What is OpenSea?
2) OpenSea fee (gas fee)
3) How to start and use OpenSea
1) Open an account on a virtual currency exchange
2) buy ethereum
3) prepare a wallet
4) send ethereum to wallet
5) Connect your wallet to OpenSea
4) How to list/sell on OpenSea
1) Select the NFT you want to list
2) Set the terms of your listing
5) Summary of OpenSea
What is OpenSea?
Name OpenSea
Start of the service 12/1/2017
NFTs handled Digital Art , Collectable NFT , Game Assets , Trading Cards ,
Digital Music etc.
Payment Method Virtual currency , online payment service “MoonPay”* , *Cannot be used in Japan outside of MoonPay’s support area
Payment currency Ethereum (ETH) , Solana (SOL) , Basic Attention Token (BAT) and others (9 types as of August 2022)
Compatible wallet Metamask, Ethereum, Klaytn, Polygon, Solana
Compatible chain -
OpenSea is a NFT marketplace that started service in December 2017. There are many NFT marketplaces around the world, but OpenSea boasts the largest transaction size among them and is driving the NFT market.
The NFTs handled are also diverse, such as digital art and game assets, and users can create and buy and sell those NFTs simply by connecting their wallets.
One of the attractions is that it supports multiple blockchains, and as of August 2022, it supports Ethereum, Klaytn, Polygon, and Solana-based NFTs.
OpenSea fee (gas fee)
First, let's check the various fees that are charged when using OpenSea.
Listing fee Free
Sales commission 2.5% of selling price
Creator fee 0-10% of selling price
Gas fee (network fee) Gas fee will be charged for the following procedures
- Purchase of NFT
- Transfer or gift of NFT
- Acceptance of offer
- Cancellation of offer
- Cancellation of NFT listing
- Conversion between Ethereum and WETH
- Bridge between Ethereum and Polygon
- Freeze metadata
What is the gas fee (network fee)?
A gas fee (network fee) is a fee charged when making a transaction on a blockchain such as Ethereum (when the transaction is recorded on the blockchain).
For each blockchain, the virtual currency used for gas charges is different. For example, if the transaction is on the Ethereum chain, it must be paid in Ethereum (ETH), and if it is on the Solana chain, it must be paid in Solana (SOL).
Gas prices are constantly fluctuating and can skyrocket if the network is congested. From the standpoint of the NFT purchaser, it is necessary to pay the gas fee mainly in the following cases.
Timing for NFT purchasers to pay for gas
1) When purchasing an NFT that is listed at a fixed price
2) When you make an offer for the NFT you want to buy and cancel it
3) When exchanging Ethereum for WETH or back to Ethereum
What is WETH?
WETH (Wrapped ETH) is an ERC-20 compliant token pegged to 1ETH = 1WETH.In OpenSea, when purchasing NFTs through offers and auctions, and when purchasing NFTs based on the Polygon chain. WETH is required for each.
You can exchange Ethereum for WETH within OpenSea, but you will have to pay for gas at that time. On the other hand, from the standpoint of the NFT exhibitor, although NFT's listing fee is not charged, it is necessary to pay Opensea a sales fee of 2.5% of the selling price at the time of sale.
Also, if you are doing secondary sales and the creator of the NFT you sold has set a creator fee, it will be collected from the sales at the set percentage (up to 10%).
Other gas payments occur when an offer to buy an NFT is accepted, or when an NFT listing is cancelled.
How to start and use OpenSea
Next, I would like to confirm how to start trading NFTs with OpenSea, but before that I would like to touch on the risks of OpenSea.
OpenSea is a service provided by a foreign company and is not authorized by Japanese law. There are risks in terms of user protection, and even if some kind of trouble occurs, we cannot rely on Japanese law. In addition, there is a risk of not being able to understand the details of the service unless you can read English because it does not support Japanese notation. If such a point makes you feel even a little uneasy, we do not recommend easy use. If you can judge that you can deal with it even if there is a risk, you should start using it.
By the way, OpenSea supports multiple blockchains and virtual currencies, but the payment currency cannot be freely selected by the purchaser. It is defined.
OpenSea has many NFTs based on the Ethereum chain, so here we will explain the flow from preparing Ethereum as a payment currency to making OpenSea usable.
How to start trading NFTs on OpenSea
1. Open an account on a virtual currency exchange
2. Buy ethereum
3. Prepare a wallet
4. Send cryptocurrency to wallet
5. Connect your wallet to OpenSea
Open an account on a virtual currency exchange
First, open an account at a virtual currency exchange to prepare Ethereum.
Buy ethereum
Once you have a virtual currency exchange account ready, let's deposit funds into your trading account and buy Ethereum.
Prepare a wallet
To use OpenSea, you need a cryptocurrency wallet. So, after purchasing Ethereum, prepare a wallet next. OpenSea supports various wallets, but this time we will use “MetaMask”, which supports multiple blockchains such as Ethereum chain and BNB chain.
MetaMask also has the risk of being an overseas service, and it will be used based on that, but preparing a wallet is easy. You can prepare it by simply installing it on a web browser such as Google Chrome from the MetaMask official website using a web browser extension.
And when you create a wallet, you will be given a recovery phrase. As the name suggests, the recovery phrase is necessary when restoring the wallet, so save it offline to prevent it from being lost or leaked.
Send ethereum to wallet
Next, transfer Ethereum from your virtual currency exchange account to a wallet such as MetaMask. In the case of MetaMask, you can check the wallet address to which the money will be sent from the "Account Details" menu. When entering the wallet address in the virtual currency remittance system, be careful not to make any typos.
Connect your wallet to MetaMask also has the risk of being an overseas service, and it will be used based on that, but preparing a wallet is easy. You can prepare it by simply installing it on a web browser such as Google Chrome from the MetaMask official website using a web browser extension.
And when you create a wallet, you will be given a recovery phrase. As the name suggests, the recovery phrase is necessary when restoring the wallet, so save it offline to prevent it from being lost or leaked.
Connect your wallet to OpenSea
Finally, go to the OpenSea official website and connect a wallet such as MetaMask. The wallet connection procedure is as follows.
Wallet connection procedure
Click the human-shaped icon in the upper right corner of the OpeSea top screen.
Since the wallet options are displayed, select the wallet you own
Unlock wallet side
Click "Sign" on the signature request screen on the wallet side
Once the wallet connection is complete, an OpenSea account will be automatically created for NFT trading. In the initial state, the account name is "Unnamed" as shown below, and the icon image is also given at random.
You can still trade as is, but in order to communicate smoothly with other users, it is a good idea to set your name, profile, icon image, etc. from the "Settings" of your account.
How to list/sell on OpenSea
Next, I will explain how to list NFTs on OpenSea.
How to list NFT on OpenSea
1. Select the NFT you want to list
2. Set the terms of your listing
Select the NFT you want to list
First, select the NFT you want to sell from the NFTs you own. When you click the account icon in the menu bar, the NFTs you own are displayed in a list as follows.
When you select the item you want to sell from among them, the NFT details screen will be displayed, so you can proceed to the listing procedure by clicking "Sell" on the upper right of the details screen.
Set the terms of your listing
On OpenSea, you can list at either a fixed price or a time-limited auction, and the conditions that can be set for each are as follows.
Conditions that can be set when listing on OpenSea
[In the case of listing at a fixed price]
1. Selling price
2. Listing period
3. Whether to sell bundles (set sales with other NFTs)
4. Whether to set reservations for specific buyers
[In the case of listing in an auction with a time limit]
1. Auction rules (English auction or Dutch auction)
2. Price at the start of the auction
3. Auction price
4. Auction period
5. Minimum auction price (Optional for English auctions)
6. Auction closing price (for Dutch auctions)
Once you have set these conditions, click “Complete listing” and sign with your wallet to complete the listing process.
By the way, here we introduced how to list NFTs that you already own, but in OpenSea, you can easily create an NFT based on the Ethereum chain or Polygon chain from “Create” in the menu bar.
There is no creation fee or gas fee, so if you are interested, you should start by making your own NFT.
Summary of this article
1. OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace with the largest trading volume in the world.
2. When using OpenSea, sales fees and gas fees (network fees) are charged.
3. By connecting a wallet such as MetaMask, it becomes available
4. In addition to buying and selling NFTs, anyone can easily create NFTs
5. Ethereum, OpenSea's payment currency
OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace where you can trade a wide variety of NFTs such as digital art and game assets. There are risks such as being an overseas service and not being compatible with Japanese, so we do not recommend using it easily, but if you can understand the risks, prepare an account and wallet for a virtual currency exchange, You might even try trading NFTs on OpenSea.
