Over the past week, I've been developing a marketplace for Ethgard while trying something new: sharing my progress publicly on a daily basis, resulting in a working version I'm going to continue to improve.
It all began when I was exploring options for a customizable EVM marketplace and discovered Seaport — a protocol that powers OpenSea.
In this post, I’ll dive into the technical aspects of the marketplace and, by the end, I hope you’ll share my excitement for it.
https://x.com/thewolfonchain/status/1902113476387967436
What is Seaport?
According to OpenSea:
"Seaport is a marketplace protocol for safely and efficiently buying and selling NFTs on the blockchain. Seaport was developed by OpenSea in 2022 and is the most used protocol for NFT transactions. Seaport powers the OpenSea website -- all orders created or fulfilled on OpenSea use the Seaport protocol."
Or in ELI5:
Seaport is like a vending machine for digital trades on the blockchain. It runs on automatic rules (smart contracts) that ensure trades are fair — either both sides get what they agreed on, or nothing happens. OpenSea uses Seaport to make buying and selling safe, without needing a middleman.
How does Seaport work?
Seaport is an onchain protocol but offers a hybrid approach: listings are created offchain securely and verifiably, eliminating gas fees - meaning players can list items without worrying about extra costs - while execution and settlement happen onchain, ensuring a decentralized marketplace. Here’s how it works in detail:
- Listings, or orders, are created locally by signing with a crypto wallet — similar to signing a message with Keychain on Hive. This process generates a signature and the listing parameters.
- Storage: These listings are stored offchain, such as in a database or potentially on another blockchain like Hive, but they need to be retrievable for the next step.
- Buying: Buyers interact with the onchain Seaport protocol (smart contracts) to fully or partially fill a listing by providing the signature and parameters.
- Verification and fulfillment: The smart contracts verify the signature is valid, hasn’t expired or been cancelled, and then fulfill the listing — for example, trading 2 packs for 0.002 ETH.
What are the advantages of using Seaport?
Leveraging existing solutions is often the most efficient approach. Integrating Seaport enabled a fast implementation of a custom marketplace interface with onchain settlement, offchain backend infrastructure & blockchain indexer. While Seaport is a strong foundation, I'm of course going to explore further optimizations as Ethgard evolves.
Another advantage is decentralization due to the onchain settlement, which was non-negotiable. The essence of Web3 is asset ownership based on verifiable code, not trust. I wanted the marketplace to be a decentralized hub for players to exchange goods, not an escrow service.
One might suggest using existing marketplaces like OpenSea or MagicEden, but they're built for broader purposes - not gaming specificially - and their fees don't flow back into Ethgard. My approach supports sustainable development and gas sponsorship, allowing free transactions. Of course, scaling this for a growing player base might be a challenge — but one I'm sure to solve.
What’s next?
As someone passionate about blending Gaming and Web3, this marketplace is a big step toward the kind of player-driven world I’ve always wanted to create. It opens up exciting possibilities for more onchain game items — like equipment and weapons; features I've wanted to implement for a long time and have started sketching out.
With this said, I hope you've enjoyed the post and are as excited as me for the future of Ethgard!