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As an artist and photographer, I’ve been minting NFTs on OpenSea. Everything is digital today, and I believe NFTs are the future of art and photography, even though it is mainly a “collectibles” marketplace right now. I have chosen to use the Polygon chain on OPENSEA for several reasons. Let me explain the benefits of using the Polygon chain both for buyers and sellers as well as a little bit about how it all works.
What Are Gas Fees?
On Twitter, I regularly see collectors talking about how they are going to buy more NFTs as soon as gas prices drop. For those who are really new to the NFT space and cryptocurrency in general, gas prices refer to how much it costs to move something between wallet addresses on the blockchain. For example, if I buy $100 worth of Ethereum on COINBASE and I want to move it to a crypto wallet like METAMASK to make it more useful, I have to pay a fee to conduct the transaction. The more I pay, the faster the currency gets from point A to point B.
For example, as I am writing this article, I am checking the current ETH gas prices and a fast transaction (around 1 minute) costs just over $2. You can cut that time to 15 seconds for about $2.50. You can save about 10 cents if you have 3 minutes to wait. If you pay less then that, it could take 10 minutes or more for your transaction (or months depending on how low of a fee you try to get away with).
The Benefits of Using the Polygon Chain on OpenSea
Now that you have a general idea of how the fee for moving crypto between wallets works, here’s where it gets crazy expensive. Moving an NFT on the blockchain costs exponentially more than moving currency. For example, once again checking on current prices, I can see that gas fees on OpenSea are $41 for buyers and $47 for sellers. That means a seller will have to pay $94 to start minting NFTs (OpenSea charges a one-time double gas fee to get started on the Ethereum chain). A buyer will have to pay $41 more than the price of the NFT they are trying to buy. So that $5 NFT is actually $46 for you even though the seller is only going to get $5.
Polygon is Opensea’s way to get around gas fees for buyers and sellers. To mint on OpenSea using the Polygon chain, a seller pays nothing. There is not even a start-up fee. That makes the world of minting new NFTs open to anyone.
How does it help sellers? There’s no gas fee! So does that mean a $5 NFT only costs you $5? Not exactly. There is still a cost to “bridging” your crypto between the Ethereum and Polygon chains. Right now, that fee is $9. So as you can see, the Polygon chain saves the buyer about 75-80% of what they would have paid in gas fees.
What about converting back in the other direction? That’s a little more expensive. Right now, it is $21 to send your crypto back to the Ethereum chain. So once a seller makes a sale, if they want to switch their currency back to the Ethereum chain, the bridge fee runs about 50-60% of current gas prices.
Clearly, in the end, everyone saves money using the Polygon chain on OpenSea.
Check Out My Art and Photography NFT Collections on OpenSea’s Polygon Chain
I hope you found this article informative. Now I would like to take a moment to promote my own artworks and photography. At the time of my writing this article, I have three collections available on OpenSea:
- Contemporary Digital Artworks – A collection of abstract and contemporary artworks I have created using Adobe Fresco
- Travel Photographer – Photos I have taken during my travels and edited using Adobe Lightroom
- Sicily Art Project – A new collection of artworks specifically related to the island of Sicily created using Adobe Fresco
Prices range from .005 ETH up to .1 ETH depending on the resolution and number of NFTs minted. I have 1/1 artworks up to runs of 50 to make my work accessible to any level of collector. If you see something you like, click the favorite button. If you see something you love, please purchase it and support my art and photography.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to tip yourself generously and have a great day!
This article is, in part, a repost of content from my personal blog found here: https://www.freelanceghostwriting.com/post/opensea-s-gas-free-nft-marketplace-on-polygon.The content is all owned by me including the artwork.
