Seaport 1.6 by Opensea Unveiled, Offering Up to 5% Reduction in Gas Fees for Select Transactions
OpenSea and the Seaport Working Group have announced the release of Seaport 1.6, the latest version of the NFT marketplace protocol designed for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystem.
The upgrade introduces a new feature called “Seaport hooks,” which is inspired by Uniswap v4 hooks. The purpose of this feature is to facilitate the development of applications that enhance the utility and liquidity of NFTs. By functioning as order fulfillment plugins, these hooks allow developers to seamlessly integrate custom contracts into the Seaport protocol.
Compared to its predecessor, Seaport 1.5, version 1.6 takes advantage of the recent Ethereum Dencun update. As a result, users can expect a 5% reduction in gas fees for certain transactions. The platform has already seen major EVM chains adopt this deployment.
With the Seaport hooks function, contracts can be deployed and invoked by Seaport, ensuring a smooth and efficient order execution process. This enables NFTs to adapt their properties based on purchase conditions, such as price and volume, and can be obtained using specific currencies or other NFTs. It also allows for the development of bonding curves and price oracles for NFTs.
OpenSea plans to transition user orders to Seaport 1.6 on Monday, March 25, without requiring user interaction. Starting from Monday, April 1, only Seaport 1.6 orders will be accepted through the OpenSea Developer API, gradually phasing out Seaport 1.5.
Furthermore, OpenSea highlights that the integration of Seaport hooks will provide NFT sales with access to liquidity from various on-chain sources. This integration is expected to expand the possibilities for DeFi and NFT interoperability, introducing features like time-weighted average price (TWAP) oracles for the NFT sector.
“Hooks and the broader Seaport ecosystem are an invitation to the developer and creator community to push the envelope for what’s possible for NFTs, and, ideally, to enable those experiences to be natively surfaced,” stated OpenSea in the official announcement.
The release of Seaport 1.6 comes at a time when the NFT market is experiencing a decline in numbers. Cryptoslam data from March 6 revealed that OpenSea, once the leading NFT marketplace, now ranks fourth. The average price of a digital collectible on OpenSea has also seen a significant drop of 22.22% according to the report.
While Bitcoin NFTs have seen an increase in interest, the price floor for Ethereum NFTs has experienced a notable decrease in recent months.
