OpenSea Launches Seaport, Its NFT Marketplace Protocol

Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea launched Seaport, an open-source and decentralized Ethereum protocol optimized for NFT transactions.

Seaport

Seaport is a decentralized Ethereum NFT marketplace protocol that allows users to swap NFTs for ETH, ERC20 altcoins and stablecoins, and other Ethereum NFTs. The protocol is a set of standardized instructions for executing the marketplace functionality on which other companies build products. According to OpenSea, the "core smart contract is open source and inherently decentralized, with no contract owner, upgradeability, or other special privileges."

Play-to-earn game Worldwide Webb's hack3r.eth tweeted the game "will be building a UI for Seaport to enable in-game bartering." Other NFT games and marketplaces are expected to build on Seaport soon.

New NFT Economy

Currently, Ethereum NFTs are only tradable for ETH at OpenSea and other marketplaces. With Seaport, users can swap NFTs for combinations of crypto and other NFTs, including targeting NFTs by trait or ID. This means you can list your Bored Ape for sale with the price of a combination of USDC, ETH, and a Doodles NFT with the shaved head trait.

Smart contract developer Shegen believes that allowing NFT swaps for more assets translates to more liquidity in the NFT economy. In that sense, Seaport increases NFT liquidity without injecting new capital into the economy. This should be a good development for the NFT economy, since it doesn't seem like new retail money is coming soon.