Opensea announced something MAJOR today - they created a protocol for NFT marketplaces called Seaport Here's what it means, why it's big for decentralization and how this radically changes how we buy/sell/trade NFTs 🧵👇
Before I begin, think about Seaport the same way you think about Uniswap. Uniswap changed the game with their open-sourced decentralized exchange - part of the avalanche that we now know as DeFi Summer in 2020. This move by Opensea might have the same potential because Uniswap is an open-source platform, and multiple copycats across different chains arose (sushiswap, pancakeswap). This led to massive growth and innovation in DEXs and DeFi, in general. This move from Opensea signals to the competition: bring it on, let the best marketplace win.
Ok, so wtf is a protocol? Right now, Opensea is a marketplace platform (like Facebook). The platform offers the service of letting you buy and sell NFTs. Opensea (the company) controls the platform 100% - so any changes to the code (such as accepting $APE) are centralized.
In contrast, protocols are like "standards." The one we're all familiar with is Email, which uses SMTP, or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. It's the standard protocol for sending emails across the Internet - every email client from Google to Yahoo uses it.
The big thing that protocols let you do is "transfer" your account - or interoperability. If you don't like using Yahoo because you think their layout is ugly and you're getting too much spam, you can always port it to Gmail and use their client instead.
So Opensea is helping decentralize the buying/selling/trading of NFTs by launching the Seaport protocol.
Here are the 6 biggest takeaways from reading the Seaport and what it means for the NFT space.
My 6 takeaways on what Seaport means for NFTs
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Opensource code: With Seaport, anyone can build an NFT marketplace using the protocol because it's decentralized and open source. In the coming years, we should expect to see way more marketplaces being built More competition = better + faster innovation.
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Decentralized: Opensea says that there is no contract owner to this protocol, and anyone can update or fork the code. To understand what this could mean for the future of NFT marketplaces, think about the ERC-721 token standard. Everyone launched their NFTs with it, until, people got fed up with high gas fees, so Azuki used contract optimizations others had found to save users money on gas. While there are some limitations with ERC721A, lots of projects now choose to use it when they can. This wouldn't happen if a centralized organization controlled the ERC-721 standard.
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Buy or trade: Right now, you can only buy or sell NFTs for ETH or fungible tokens (APE, USDC, DAI). On the Seaport protocol, you’ll be able to trade NFTs or sell for ETH or erc-20 token. So, list your MAYC for 25ETH, or 5 ETH + 1 Azuki, or just 2 Azuki's - you have that kind of flexibility.
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Trade for specific NFTs: When trading NFTs, you can also set specific “criteria” that the NFT must have. So, want to trade your rank 2 Azuki only for a gold BAYC? you can specify that, so only wallets with a gold ape can trade for your NFT.
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Dutch Auction listings: Not sure what the market values your NFT at? Create a dutch auction! With seaport, you can set a start and end price, say how long you want the auction to run. The listing will decrease (or increase) the price until a buyer is found (or expires).
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Find bugs & earn $$: Opensea is conducting a two-week audit contest with a total $1 million prize pool. Any developer can audit the code and submit reviews and errors they find, and be rewarded for their work. https://code4rena.com/contests/2022-05-opensea-seaport-contest
The marketplace landscape is set to look very different in the coming months and years. You can bet that many will choose to build on Seaport protocol, and will increasingly become the standard for NFTs
What I'm excited about most is the innovation this opens up. Because the code is open-sourced, all marketplaces will be competing for users. Who will create the next killer feature that attracts users? How quickly will the competition catch up or out-innovate?
I think this is the NFTs "Uniswap moment" What happened after Uniswap? DeFi Summer. Perhaps there's another NFT summer on the horizon soon enough...
Thanks for reading! This appeared originally as a thread on Twitter. I also write a newsletter, which you can subscribe to here.