OpenSea’s SeaDrop Refines NFT Minting and Drop Process

October 12, 2022

By Sharan Kaur Phillora

NFT project creators can now skip the tedious task of deploying their own custom smart contracts using SeaDrop, an open-source smart contract developed by OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace.

Here’s what we know: 

With SeaDrop, creators have more control over the technical details, as they can add drop times, add allowlists, and even have tiers of allowlists.

Additionally, the feature allows drops across Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible blockchains, including Ethereum and Polygon. The company will soon support Avalanche, Gnosis Chain, BNB Chain, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Avalanche. 

In addition to public and allow-list minting, SeaDrop supports token-gated and server-signed minting. Due to the on-chain activity record, SeaDrop drops can easily be indexed or tracked. SeaDrop’s development team is also expected to optimize gas to make bulk minting cheaper.

In the last month, OpenSea added support for two Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solutions: Arbitrum and Optimism. OpenSea now supports six networks: Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Klatyn, Arbitrum, and Optimism.

In May, OpenSea launched a new protocol dubbed Seaport, which allows users to place bids on NFTs using ERC-20 tokens and ERC-721 tokens. Users can essentially barter their NFTs for any combination of assets they desire.

In April, OpenSea acquired Gem, a popular NFT aggregator which allows users to buy multiple NFTs across diverse marketplaces in a single transaction.

About the author

Sharan Kaur Phillora’s thirst for knowledge has led her to study many different subjects, including NFTs and Blockchain technology – two emerging technologies that will change how we interact with each other in the future. When she isn’t exploring a new idea or concept, she enjoys reading literary masterpieces.