The scheduled date of September for the Ethereum Merge is only fifteen days away as of right now. The Merge is expected to make the Ethereum network more scalable and effective by switching to a Proof-of-Stake blockchain.
The largest NFT marketplace in the world, OpenSea, announced that it will only support NFTs on the updated Ethereum PoS chain. The most recent update from OpenSea noted:
OpenSea stated that they have been working on the OpenSea product to enable a smooth transition in addition to supporting the Ethereum PoS chain. OpenSea doesn’t anticipate any significant complications because the developments surrounding the Merge update have gone well and according to schedule. The statement also stated that “we’re committed to monitoring, managing, and communicating throughout.”
OpenSea is working on new projects in addition to being ready for the switch to Ethereum PoS. OpenSea declared earlier this week that it would integrate the Polygon blockchain into its recently released Seaport Protocol. This transition allows OpenSea to maintain its market in a more energy-efficient manner.
Previously, the 0x protocol was used to power Polygon on OpenSea. The infrastructure for OpenSea will be better and more reliable if it switches to Seaport. The official statement stated:
“After several months of observing Seaport’s impact and collecting valuable feedback, we’re excited to introduce Polygon support on Seaport. In the coming months, we will be adding support for Klaytn and other EVM-compatible chains as well.”
Other NFT markets operate differently than the OpenSea seaport protocol. OpenSea utilizes the “offer & consideration” process as opposed to a peer-to-peer transaction. This appears to be a sophisticated transaction where the buyers can provide the agreed-upon digital goods in Ethereum (ETH), ERC20, ERC721, or ERC1155.
The removal of initialization fees for new platform users will be another advantage of migrating to the Seaport protocol.