I’ve personally spent the last 10 plus years advocating for decentralized innovation, helping young people develop digital entrepreneurial skills and even advising market entry strategies. So trust me when I say, I know how tempting OpenSea is. Furthermore, it has opened up access to the world of digital art and collectibles, allowing creators to reach their audiences without intermediaries. It's given artists a platform they never had before, a way to bypass the gatekeepers of the traditional art world. I can't shake this nagging feeling: are we simply replacing one set of gatekeepers with another?

Are NFTs Really For Everyone?

OpenSea continues to promote itself as a platform that protects the creators and collectors. It democratizes NFT creation, providing options such as “lazy minting” to reduce barriers for creators. That's great in theory. Let's be real. How many of these emerging artists are actually flourishing on the platform? How many are getting lost in the noise, overshadowed by blue-chip collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks that command attention and capital? You can add your art, get featured with them, absolutely, but being noticed is a whole different animal.

Think about it like this: OpenSea is a vast ocean. It’s easy to take a quick trip — sure, anyone can just launch a boat, but only a handful of yachts rule the horizon. The platform's algorithm, like any algorithm, tends to favor what's already popular. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. The only thing that changes is the rich get richer and the independent artist can’t even get a toe in the door.

And what about the gas fees? Even with support from OpenSea on solutions like Polygon, high underlying blockchain costs are still a major hurdle. This challenge has particularly devastating consequences for creators in developing countries. If a platform is economically out of reach for over half of the planet, is it really that decentralized?

Fees, Funds, and Familiar Patterns

This is because OpenSea charges an extremely high 2.5% service fee on every transaction. Okay, businesses need to make money. When you actually look at the fee, you’ll see that it’s really not so different from the commission structures of typical art galleries. The disparity typically shocks people. Unlike physical galleries, OpenSea doesn’t provide one-on-one advice, marketing assistance or curation. It's a marketplace, pure and simple.

Now, let's talk about venture capital. OpenSea is backed by some serious investors. Because that sort of funding has strings attached – strings attached for growth, for profitability, for market dominance. And that’s how the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Consider this: venture capital inherently introduces centralization. The pressure to deliver on investments can quickly overshadow the platform’s initial commitment to decentralization. Are any of these decisions being made to prioritize the interests and needs of independent creators and their collectors, or to grow shareholder returns? And that’s a question we should all be asking.

This is exactly like the early days of the web pic.twitter.com/NzyeMQ41OJ — Faris Yakob (@farisyakob) March 17, 2016 We dreamed of a democratized information landscape, an ecosystem untainted by corporate influence. What happened? These days, a few large players—think Google, Facebook, and Amazon—are monopolizing the market. Today, they have gained extraordinary influence over our information and ability to monopolize our attention. Are we once more sleepwalking into a reality with NFTs like this?

Can We Build a Better Ocean?

I'm not saying OpenSea is inherently evil. But like any other powerful tool, it can cause more harm than good if used improperly. But we should be critical, to ask the hard questions, to reimagine better paths forward.

Yet, the beauty of this technology lies in the innovation it can bring. We’re better than just reproducing Wall Street’s current power structures in cyberspace. We can still create a better internet, one that is genuinely decentralized and empowers all of us equally, instead of just the few.

  • Community-owned marketplaces: Platforms governed by DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) could prioritize the needs of creators and collectors over profit maximization.
  • Tiered fee structures: Implement a sliding scale of fees that favors emerging artists and smaller transactions.
  • Algorithmic transparency: Make the platform's ranking algorithm open-source, allowing the community to scrutinize and improve it.
  • Focus on curation: Promote curated collections that spotlight diverse artists and projects, rather than simply amplifying what's already popular.

I reflect on the young people I am privileged to mentor. Most of all, they are full of talent and creativity. They frequently lack the resources and the networks that give access to the traditional art establishment. For a while, NFTs held the promise of breakthrough, of success without the need to sell out. If platforms like OpenSea just replicate the structure’s existing inequities, we’re doing them a disservice.

We need to demand more. Together, we can create a more equitable NFT ecosystem. Digital ownership is counting on it, too.

We need to demand more. We need to build a more equitable NFT ecosystem. The future of digital ownership depends on it.