Opensea introduces Seaport 1.6, which can reduce gas rates for some transactions by up to 5%

OpenSea and the Seaport Working Group have released Seaport 1.6, the latest version of the NFT marketplace protocol for the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) ecosystem.

‘Seaport hooks’, a new feature of the upgrade, is modeled around Uniswap v4 hooks. The purpose of this position is to facilitate the development of applications that increase the utility and liquidity of NFTs. By functioning as order fulfillment plugins, these hooks allow developers to easily integrate custom contracts into the Seaport protocol.

Compared to its predecessor, Seaport 1.5, version 1.6 uses the latest Ethereum Dencun update. As a result, the platform says users will benefit from a 5% reduction in gas fees for some transactions. According to the announcement, major EVM chains are already using this implementation.

Using the Seaport hooks feature, contracts can be deployed and invoked by Seaport, ensuring a smooth and efficient order execution process. This allows NFTs to customize their properties based on purchasing terms such as price and volume, and can be acquired using specific currencies or other NFTs. It also enables the development of bonding curves and price oracles for NFTs.

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OpenSea plans to move user orders to Seaport 1.6 on Monday, March 25. This technique does not involve any user interaction. Additionally, starting Monday, April 1, only Seaport 1.6 orders will be accepted by the OpenSea Developer API. As a result, Seaport 1.5 will eventually be phased out.

Additionally, OpenSea mentioned that the integration of seaport hooks will give NFT sales access to liquidity from various sources in the chain. This integration is expected to expand the capabilities for DeFi and NFT interoperability, with features such as time-weighted average price (TWAP) oracles for the NFT sector.

“Hooks and the broader Seaport ecosystem are an invitation to the community of developers and makers to push the boundaries of what is possible for NFTs, and ideally to bring those experiences home to life,” Opensea wrote in the official announcement.

The update comes as the NFT market is experiencing a slump. On March 6, data from Cryptoslam revealed that OpenSea, once the largest NFT marketplace, now ranks fourth on the list. The average price of a digital collectible on OpenSea also fell by a whopping 22.22% at the time of the report’s publication.

While the ordinal numbers on the Bitcoin network have been on the rise, the price floor for Ethereum NFTs has fallen significantly in recent months.

Read more: OpenSea CEO teases interest in mergers and acquisitions amid NFT market turmoil