OpenSea takes on decentralized edge with Seaport launch

Seaport (a new web3 marketplace) has been launched by OpenSea with the purpose of making NFT trading safer and more efficient.

Having integrated Solana NFTs last month, OpenSea is back once again with the announcement of the Seaport protocol via a blog post on Friday.

Multi-asset bartering

The current version of most NFT marketplaces facilitate listings where one party agrees to provide an NFT and the other party agrees to supply a payment token.

Seaport is different in that it allows a combination of any ETH-compatible tokens to be used as payment for an NFT listed on the Seaport marketplace.

Effectively, Seaport allows greater flexibility for owners of NFTs to trade and barter, making up the difference in value by bundling a number of digital assets together. Another function included within the protocol is the ability to tip, so long as the amount doesn’t exceed the original offer.

Seaport uses open source smart contracts, and OpenSea does not have any control over the protocol. On that basis, OpenSea expects to be one of many entities to build on top of the Seaport protocol. The introduction of a truly decentralized web3 marketplace protocol by OpenSea is likely to be welcomed by those who have criticized the centralized nature of the leading NFT marketplace.

Multi-asset bartering is already facilitated via SudoSwap and nft.org’s NFT Protocol. The difference in this case is that Seaport will be natively supported on OpenSea - the first and largest NFT marketplace.

Dutch auction listings

Seaport also allows dutch auctions in instances where a seller is unsure of the value of their digital asset. The protocol allows a start and end price to be set, while choosing over what duration the auction should run.A bounty program has been launched, and security reviews of the protocol have been completed by auditors OpenZeppelin and Trail of Bits, with no significant vulnerabilities found.