By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
OpenSea has said it plans to use Immutable X to get rid of gas fees. The NFT marketplace aims to support the trading of digital collectibles on their gas-free layer-2 protocol built on Ethereum without compromising on security.
OpenSea has announced plans to integrate an Ethereum Layer 2 protocol that will allow the platform to offer users free gas trading. This comes as the NFT marketplace makes strides to dominate the industry. In the last few months, the marketplace has become a favorite for collectors and artists.
After a humble launch in 2017, this year has become its best year, largely fueled by demand for NFTs. In March, the platform has transacted more than $147 million. on top of this, the platform managed to raise $23 million with high-profile individuals such as Mark Cuban and Andreessen Horowitz, in the list of investors.
OpenSea Commit to Ethereum
But as the platform continues to attract more users, it has come under pressure. Gas fees and speed have become major drawbacks for new and existing traders on OpenSea. As an Ethereum based marketplace, it has faced the same problems rocking Ethereum over the last few years. Inability to scale and high gas fees. But the team has found an elegant solution that ensures it does not leave Ethereum.
On Wednesday, OpenSea announced it was integrating an Ethereum Layer 2 protocol. Immutable X is built for NFTs on Ethereum. It offers zero trading fees, instant confirmations and claims it can reach up to 9,000 transactions per second.
“Integrating Immutable X enables us to offer users a gas-free trading experience without sacrificing the security of the Ethereum network,” said OpenSea Head of Product Nate Chastain. “We’re rolling this out for … future game developers and players on OpenSea who will benefit from this scaling solution.”
Demand for NFTs is ever-increasing, more so fueled by the growing trend of digital exhibitions. As the first and largest NFTs marketplace, OpenSea could be setting a trend that is soon followed by other NFT marketplaces.
NFTs Face Scalability Issue
According to a blog post by Immutable X, NFTs on Ethereum are currently facing a scaling crisis. There have been several proposed solutions, including Plasma Chains, State Channels and ZK-rollups which Immutable X is considered as. This solution has sparked excitement as it allows for big batch proof confirmations. It is said:
“Generally, users will deposit their assets into a smart contract on-chain, and their assets will be made available for instant trading in an off-chain environment. Users can subsequently withdraw back on-chain under certain conditions…”
This allows for high speed in transactions without compromising on security. This solution has been lauded by Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin who has further suggested that the entire Ethereum ecosystem is likely to be all-in on rollups as a scaling strategy.