It’s always been our goal to connect people with NFTs across every chain possible. OpenSea now offers cross-blockchain compatibility across the Ethereum, Polygon, Klaytn, Solana, Arbitrum, Optimism, Avalanche, BNB, Zora, and Base blockchains.
This guide briefly explains the differences between them.
Ethereum
Official Website: ethereum.org
Token: ETH
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality launched in 2015.
Ether is the native currency of the Ethereum network and it’s commonly abbreviated to ETH, which is its ticker symbol. Ethereum uses a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, eliminating the need for energy-intensive mining and instead securing the network using staked ETH. In Ethereum, new transactions get added in "blocks" every 12 seconds. Validators are a built-in mechanism of the Ethereum blockchain and get paid in ETH.
ETH is used to pay transaction fees (known as gas fees) on the Ethereum blockchain. OpenSea has no say in setting gas fees - they are determined by network capacity and demand and fluctuate according to network usage.
Polygon
Official Website: polygon.technology
Token: MATIC
Polygon is an EVM-compatible blockchain that provides scalable, secure, and quick transactions with currencies like ETH, USDC, MATIC, and DAI.
As one of the first scaling solutions for Ethereum, cryptocurrencies must be "bridged" from Ethereum's blockchain to Polygon. Think of Polygon as a sibling to Ethereum, the currencies are similar, but the two blockchains have slight differences.
Klaytn
Official Website: www.klaytn.foundation
Token: KLAY
Klaytn is an open-source public blockchain project, built to be the fundamental trust layer for the metaverse, respecting and empowering the participation and contribution of its community and stakeholders. Users can use the Kaikas wallet browser extension or MetaMask to buy and sell Klaytn NFTs using OpenSea. Klaytn’s native token, KLAY, is supported and used to pay for transaction fees.
- EVM-based dApp deployment and execution on top of a PoS model that holds 1-second block finality and an elevated TPS environment
- A comprehensive package of open source tooling and supportive ecosystem to make building for the metaverse easier than ever, including: L2 (service chain) solutions, wallets and account management, SDKs, interoperability tools, DAO governance tools, and more.
Solana
Official Website: https://solana.com/
Token: SOL
Solana is a high-speed and low-cost blockchain with low environmental impact. Solana’s performance is driven by a single global state, which is capable of processing tens of thousands of smart contracts at once, and by Proof of History, a distributed clock that unlocks low-latency, sub-second finality across the global state. OpenSea displays NFTs and collections on Solana, but buying and listing items isn’t currently supported.
Arbitrum
Official website: https://bridge.arbitrum.io/
Token: Arbi ETH
Arbitrum is a type of technology known as an “optimistic rollup,” which is a blockchain that takes advantage of the consensus mechanism of its parent chain—in this case, Ethereum.
Optimistic rollups have many advantages, including rapid and inexpensive transactions and the decentralization and security guarantees provided by Ethereum as a reliable L1 foundation.
Arbitrum was created with Ethereum compatibility as a top priority, meaning users can interact with Arbitrum using standard Ethereum wallets, and developers can build and deploy contracts with standard Ethereum libraries and tooling.
OpenSea is compatible with the Arbitrum chains Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova.
Optimism
Official website: https://www.optimism.io/
Token: OP
Optimism is an EVM equivalent Optimistic Rollup chain designed to be fast, simple, and secure.
Transaction data submitted on Optimism is "rolled up" to the Ethereum mainnet in batches. These groups of transactions are bundled by a single computer, the sequencer. This significantly reduces transaction cost—typically between 1% and 10% of the cost on the Ethereum mainnet—while a challenge mechanism ensures the sequencer is honest.
Optimism is more than a blockchain. It's also an experiment in sustainable ecosystem funding fueled by protocol revenue, donating 100% of sequencer profits to projects in the ecosystem via retroactive public goods funding—scaling Ethereum’s present to provide funding for its future.
All Optimism transactions are posted to L1 Ethereum, inheriting the strong security guarantees of Ethereum.
Avalanche
Official website: https://www.avax.network/
Token: AVAX
Avalanche is an open-source platform for launching decentralized finance applications and enterprise blockchain deployments in one interoperable, highly scalable ecosystem. Avalanche uses Proof-of-Stake, which allows tens of thousands of validators to have a first-hand say in the system while consuming minimal energy.
OpenSea supports the Avalanche C-Chain, which is used for smart contracts and is compatible with Ethereum.
BNB
Official website: https://www.bnbchain.org/
Token: BNB
BNB Chain is comprised of two blockchains—Beacon Chain (BC) and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), which supports NFTs.
BNB Smart Chain is a blockchain that runs in parallel to the Beacon Chain, has smart contract functionality, and is EVM-compatible. BNB Smart Chain relies on a system of 21 active validators with Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA) consensus that can support short block time and lower fees.
OpenSea displays NFTs and collections on BNB Smart Chain, but listing items isn’t currently supported.
Zora
Official website: https://zora.energy/
Token: ETH
The Zora Network is a fast, cost-efficient, and scalable Layer 2 built to help bring media onchain. Zora Network is designed to be secure by inheriting the security of Ethereum mainnet and is built using the OP Stack.
Base
Official website: https://base.org/
Token: ETH
Base is a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly Ethereum Layer 2 built to bring the next billion users to web3. Base is the onchain home for Coinbase products, users, and assets, as well as an open ecosystem where anyone can build for them. Base was built using the OP Stack.
