Steemit Crypto Academy (Season 2, Week 2) Homework post for [@levycore] - Introduction to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), Introducing OpenSea.io, largest marketplace NFTs

This week’s crypto academy course is about NFTs. NFTs stand for Non-Fungible Tokens.

According to Wikipedia, “Fungible” means:

replaceable by another identical item; mutually interchangeable.

So a fungible item can be replaced by another identical item. But in the case of Non-Fungible items, it is impossible to create another identical item. You can have copies of that item but the true and authentic ownership is given to a single person only. That means even though other people might have copies of this item but there is only one owner of that NFT item.

In common language, NFT is a crypto token assigned to a digital asset like digital art, music, games or any other digital item that can be sold on the internet. NFTs have shown a new way of selling art and crafts online to artists worldwide.

The recent hype you see on the internet about the NFTs is due to many big names selling or buying something using this technology. Recently, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter sold the digital version of one of his earliest tweets. But why buy an item that can be duplicated over time, and anybody can do it right?

No, a digital certificate is generated for an NFT and is then issued to the new owner that the item they have bought is unique and possesses discreteness. The tweet sold by Jack Dorsey was posted on the tweeter in its earliest days and had great value.

In this assignment, I am going to talk about a platform that enables anybody to buy or sell NFTs online. The platform’s name is OpenSea

^{Source: OpenSea}

OpenSea NFT Marketplace Introduction

OpenSea is a platform that helps peer-to-peer buying and selling of digital collectibles and is established on the Ethereum network. They boast to be the largest marketplace for buying and selling of Non-Fungible Tokens on the internet. They operate in the following categories:

1. Domain Names
2. Art
3. Virtual Worlds
4. Trading Cards
5. Collectibles
6. Sports
7. Utility

You can also choose from several wallets to interact with the OpenSea platform and the ethereum blockchain. Here is the list of wallets you can choose from:

1. MetaMask
2. Fortmatic
3. Authereum
4. Dapper
5. Bitski
6. Torus

To buy an NFT on the OpenSea platform, you can visit the Browse Page. This is the page where are the new, trending, on auctions assets or items are shown. So you can start your journey on the OpenSea platform from here.

Source: OpenSea

You can change the search results on this page by sorting the results. There are some options available to sort the results. Among them are:

• Recently Listed - The items with the shortest time of being listed will be shown first.

• Recently Born - Want to see which items are minted recently, then you can use this one.

• Expiring Soon - The items that are put on auction have a time limit, if the limit is expiring soon then those items will be shown under this method.

• Lowest Price - Items with the lowest price will be shown first.

• Highest Price - Items with the highest price will be shown first.

• Highest Last Sale - Want to know which items were last sold for the highest ETH price? This method fetches the same.

• Oldest - The items that were minted on the blockchain in its earliest days will be shown here.

• Most Viewers - THose items that are visited by most users will be shown first.

There will also be a set of pills/buttons given in the topmost part of the left sidebar of the browse page. You can use them to further help you refine your results.

• On Sale Pill – You can use this button to see only those items or assets that are on sale currently. If you click it again, it will switch off the functionality.

• Has Offers Pill – If something is not for sale on the marketplace, you can make an offer to the owner.

• Pre-Sale Pill – There are many apps and games that are launched every other month. Blockchain apps/game companies often come here to sell some of their items before even launching their app/game. Pressing this button will fetch all the items that are listed on pre-sale.

• Has Bounty – Just like Amazon affiliates, you can earn rewards for referring someone to buy from OpenSea too. This pill/button will limit your results only to those items that are offering some kind of affiliate rewards for referrals.

• Auctions – Just like normal auctions, you can bid your price on any item that has been placed on auctions. To win the auctions, you just have to become the highest bidder for an item in a time period.

• Bundles – Want to buy multiple items from the same person/artist? Items offered with other items are called bundles here. You can purchase them together.

Now you know how this platform works. You have read about searching, sorting and filtering methods available on this platform, you can use them to find tempting Non-Fungible Tokens. For the first-timers, I would recommend that you guys go with a cheap NFT so as to get the feel of how the platform works.

How to make a purchase of NFTs on OpenSea?

All you need to have is the ethereum network wallet that can make the transactions on the ethereum blockchain for you. I would recommend MetaMask wallet as it is used by most users.

Source: OpenSea

Every item on the marketplace has either a fixed price or an auction-style bidding system. For the fixed price items, you can directly purchase them by clicking on the “Buy Now” button. On the other hand, auctioned items can only be purchased when you have won the auction. Both of this method will use your wallet for making a transaction.

You can also put your items for sale on OpenSea

It is really easy to sell your items on OpenSea. All you need to do is to create something that might have some demand in the marketplace. When you have something of value, you put it up on the OpenSea platform for people to buy.

^{Source: OpenSea}

There are three methods through which users can buy your items.

• Fixed Price Listing - Just like listings on Amazon, these listings are put up for a fixed price.

• English Auctions - You offer your item to the marketplace at the minimum price possible and then people come and bid with a higher price. The bid with the highest price wins the auction and takes away the item.

• Dutch Auctions - The Dutch auction method is not known by people worldwide as it is not used much but it has already made a permanent place in the recent NFT marketplace auctions. In this type of auctions, the seller places the item on the marketplace at the highest possible price and gradually then lowers the price as time passes away. When the price reaches a point at which a buyer agrees on the worth of the item, the item then is sold to that buyer.

So this concludes my NFT assignment. I hope you learn something from this.

Thanks to @levycore