In case you haven’t heard, OpenSea is currently undertaking significant changes as part of its plans to revitalize the platform, and everyone on the platform needs to upgrade their smart contract
OpenSea: A New Beginning
OpenSea is undoubtedly the largest NFT marketplace right now. They achieved considerable success by capitalizing on early movements in the NFT space, which is one reason this company has grown so much in such a short period. From the outside looking in, they employed a company mentality that focused on doing first and asking questions later.
As OpenSea proliferates, they have attracted a lot of bad press, and to many people, they’re the embodiment of all that’s wrong with the NFT space. Being this large, it’s hard for OpenSea to avoid bad press, but it has not mattered until recently; the team behind this platform has simply focused on growth at all costs.
There’s nothing wrong with focusing on hyper-growth; some of the largest companies in the world have had to live through times of hyper-growth to become as large as they are now. Fortunately or unfortunately, the time for growth without consequences has run out for this company; they now need to put on their adult pants and focus on things that matter to regulators like IP laws, running a clean operation, and the like. The last few months have been exciting for OpenSea, but the time may have come to focus on running a sustainable ship, and their latest actions show that they’re on the right track.
Smart Contract Migration
OpenSea is migrating all current listings on their website from the Ethereum blockchain to their new smart contract. According to an announcement from OpenSea, all NFT listings on their platform created prior to February 18, 2022, will expire automatically on February 25, 2022 (2 PM ET).
There are a few reasons this migration can prove to be a positive for the NFT community; firstly, it can help funnel out inactive listings. Additionally, it can also help reduce the outrageous gas fees affiliated with the Ethereum blockchain.
Don’t be scared; during the migration process, OpenSea will not be charging gas fees for this activity; the platform confirmed this fact during a series of tweets shared on February 18.
What does this mean for the NFT community?
For those who are able and willing to migrate their NFT listings, your listings will show their original posting date after successful completion. If the deadline passes and a creator decides they’d like to relist an automatically delisted listing, they can do that on the new smart contract without repercussions.
Looking at the big picture, OpenSea moving their listings off the Ethereum blockchain is a massive move that has wide-reaching consequences, and although everyone knew it was only a matter of time until such an occurrence, it’s still an experience to relish.
Thankfully, OpenSea seems to have made the migration process as seamless and straightforward as possible, and that’s always a good thing.
