Besides regular coin tradings, investing in NFTs continues to gain popularity at an unprecedented speed which recorded $17.7 billion in sales just in the first half of 2022 and amidst the crypto winter. If you are an NFT investor, either a pure or a degen, considering the right chain to begin or continue expanding your interests in NFTs means a lot. We believe that the majority of us will first interact with NFT with particular marketplaces whose names overtook others such as OpenSea or X2Y2. However, the underlying chain that is currently running the marketplace has a profound influence on how NFT transactions are made and the fees you are going to pay. It is when you should pay close attention to what chain the marketplace was built on.The Ethereum chain is too well-known to explain why people mostly choose it. In the meantime, the rising phenomenon of Solana-based marketplace, Magic Eden, has brought fresh air to “quite” old-fashioned NFTs trading space. As of writing, the number of unique wallet addresses interacting with Solana’s marketplace in the last 30 days reached 214.09k, which proves to overrank popular Ethereum-based marketplaces such as Gem or X2Y2 (according to Dappradar). What is the answer to this phenomenon? Which chain might be the best when investing in NFTs? Let’s find out on <a href="https://www.builder.news/" alt="Builder.news" title="Builder.news" target="_blank" rel="" class="">Builder.news</a>.<img src="https://cdn.builder.news/news/11ed1319c789dbbca8e6023f659fee92.jpg" alt="NFTs in ETH and Solana" title="NFTs in ETH and Solana" width="600" height="336"><h2>A first-mover vs new marketplace</h2><h3>Ethereum - Marketplace with Lindy Effect?</h3>Ethereum is so famous for being a first-mover to join the blockchain and hence, it is one of the pioneers to offer a variety of possible applications on blockchain and cryptocurrency. In the very beginning, Ethereum is a network for digital transactions that helps programmers create and implement distributed applications. Decentralized Applications (DApps) and <a href="https://www.builder.news/crypto-insights/blockchains-backbone-to-call-smart-contracts-InrUS" alt="Blockchain's backbone to call Smart Contracts" title="Blockchain's backbone to call Smart Contracts" target="_blank" rel="" class="">smart contracts</a> can be created and operated by people hosting apps on the Ethereum blockchain.Coin trading is one of the most significant applications of Ethereum in blockchain technology. Later on, when NFTs started to take a deep dive into the blockchain sphere, the Ethereum chain continues its strength in terms of providing smart contracts to develop marketplaces where billions of cryptocurrencies are pouring these days.In 2021, Ethereum still operated using a proof of work (PoW) paradigm. This paradigm is criticized for having a negative influence on the environment because it uses a lot of computing resources. Ethereum, however, intends to convert to a proof of stake (PoS) mechanism in 2022. The infrastructure of the network is expected to be severely disrupted by Ethereum 2.0, in a more familiar phrase, <a href="https://www.builder.news/crypto-insights/5-facts-about-layer-2" alt="5 facts about Layer 2 - An optimal solution for Ethereum" title="5 facts about Layer 2 - An optimal solution for Ethereum" target="_blank" rel="" class="">Layer 2</a>. With the extraordinary advantage that layer 2 might bring about, the Ethereum network attempts to increase its scalability, security, and sustainability with well over 10 million ETH now being locked in the ETH’s 2.0.According to the Lindy Effect, anything becomes more trustworthy as it ages because it has had more opportunities to be put to the test. Because of this, Ethereum can benefit from the Lindy Effect. It has undergone numerous tests, been put to the test, and repeatedly shown itself to be antifragile. With such a huge impact on the industry, Ethereum is indispensable to attracting people and their money into the chain. Since OpenSea was introduced, users continue to flock over the platform to make transactions and leverage the importance of Ethereum on another level.<img src="https://cdn.builder.news/news/11ed1319c789e3bea8e6023f659fee92.jpg" alt="OpenSea vs Magic Eden on Dappradar" title="OpenSea vs Magic Eden on Dappradar" width="600" height="251"><h3>Solana-based marketplaces - New but redoubtable</h3>On the other hand, Solana seems to be a direct competitor with Ethereum, especially in the NFTs field.Solana was developed with the goal of being the solution to the throughput problem on the Ethereum chain. Instead of using the PoW paradigm, Solana applies a PoH (Proof of History) solution. On the Solana blockchain, timestamped transactions help establish the chain of events that took place before the latest update of the blockchain's state across the network. Transaction information entered into blocks via hash functions cannot be changed. These hashes are then used as input for the next transaction. These imported items are then timestamped to record their actual sequence to save time on having to re-validate hashes one by one. As a result, the Solana chain can process 50-65 000 transactions per second with a theoretical limit of more than 70000 transactions per second (compared to Bitcoin's 7 TPS and Ethereum's 15 TPS) in a standard gigabit network and 28.4 million transactions/second in the gigabit 40 networks.Magic Eden was introduced to be a very young NFT marketplace but has made gigantic strides in trading volumes when being compared with OpenSea.<h2>OpenSea as of Ethereum vs Magic Eden as of Solana: Numbers say it all</h2>The insights will be proved more practically with secondary market measures, specifically OpenSea versus Magic Eden figures representing the 2 most famous marketplaces on Ethereum and Solana, respectively.The prominent NFT marketplace built in Ethereum is known by everyone, <a href="https://www.builder.news/crypto-insights/how-to-use-opensea" alt="An ultimate guide on how to use OpenSea NFT marketplace" title="An ultimate guide on how to use OpenSea NFT marketplace" target="_blank" rel="" class="">OpenSea</a>. Later on, the platform aggregates with different networks including Solana. Although NFTs on OpenSea are shown in various networks, ETH symbol occupies the majority of collections. In the 30-day record on DappRadar, OpenSea experiences a subtle decrease in volume but still overlap Magic Eden’s figures. However, it is not 100% taken from Ethereum-based NFTs. As already mentioned, collections on OpenSea are accumulated from different chains including Solana, which, of course, will include some of the figures made in this network. Then the fact that looking at the number of trading volumes will not accurately reflect the current NFT market’s tendency to which network.Despite the fact that OpenSea has gained a significant amount of transactions over time thanks to being the field’s oldie, that of <a href="https://www.builder.news/crypto-insights/magic-eden-more-than-just-an-nft-marketplace" alt="Magic Eden - More than just an NFT marketplace" title="Magic Eden - More than just an NFT marketplace" target="_blank" rel="" class="">Magic Eden</a> surpassed with nearly 13 millions transactions in the latest 30 days, which seems to sixfold the amount from OpenSea. Ironically, Magic Eden’s outstanding figure is even suffering from a 8.4% decline while there’s double digits increase in OpenSea’s.<img src="https://cdn.builder.news/news/11ed1319c789e93ba8e6023f659fee92.jpg" alt="OpenSea statistics" title="OpenSea statistics" width="600" height="220"><img src="https://cdn.builder.news/news/11ed1319c789ee3da8e6023f659fee92.jpg" alt="Magic Eden statistics" title="Magic Eden statistics" width="600" height="224">(source: DappRadar)This is just a preliminary analysis of the 2 marketplaces as of writing, the future will tell which will be more figure-effective. However, to consider transaction costs, Magic Eden comes with a solution that was advertised in the first paragraphs of the article, of course, will urge users to consider replacing OpenSea. OpenSea’s burned ETH (as of gas fee) always ranked first in the ultrasound.money’s calculation. It is true to the fact that if an NFT enthusiast wants to buy or sell their NFTs successfully, the fees will proportionally increase with the NFT’s heat.On the contrary, “0% listing fee, only 2% transaction fee” is advertised on Solana’s marketplace. It gives the answer to the fact that overwhelming numbers of transactions are recorded. The subject above also somehow addresses the problems associated with transaction smoothness.<h2>However…</h2>People can’t help being affected by either FOMO or FUD. FUD is good in some ways, though. There are rumors that the Solana network is weak at its level of security, which means, hacks or exploits are more possible than in Ethereum. You might be skeptical about it because why do you have to since you only need to pay fixed 2% fees for each NFT transaction, right?However, just in this morning (August 3), Magic Eden tweeted an official announcement on how their end users should protect themselves from hacks that are exploiting their assets in both SOL and NFTs.<img src="https://cdn.builder.news/news/11ed1319c789f446a8e6023f659fee92.jpg" alt="Magic Eden tweet" title="Magic Eden tweet" width="600" height="433">Hacks are unpreventable in the blockchain sphere. Even Quixotic - a marketplace powered by <a href="https://www.builder.news/project-review/optimism-op-a-layer2-scaling-solution-for-ethereum-applications" alt="Optimism (OP) - A Layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum applications" title="Optimism (OP) - A Layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum applications" target="_blank" rel="" class="">Optimism</a>, reassured users with the fact that NFTs on Quixotic are safe and unaffected by its exploit in early 2022, the deteriorating weakness of a platform is it cannot prevent and act fast during the crisis. Solana or Magic Eden is experiencing this. On August 3 2022 morning, there was an exploit reported on the Solana network, affecting more than 9,000 hot wallets and causing a loss of $6 million in various tokens just in one day. The closed-source Slope wallet may be to blame for an ongoing exploit, according to developers behind the Solana blockchain. The Solana Foundation's Twitter account is also blaming Slope and Slope-tied Phantom wallets and not its own code for the attack.<img src="https://cdn.builder.news/news/11ed13a948e9559ea8e6023f659fee92.jpg" alt="SMS aey.sol tweet" title="SMS aey.sol tweet" width="600" height="313">It is too early to see how things will continue, however, we will understand one thing is that after all, the most important factor to consider for a network or particular NFT marketplace to enter is its level of security. Of course, Ethereum-based applications experienced technological hacks. In technical terms, we need to investigate how Ethereum and Solana implement their smart contracts in transactions. There is a sharing that we find "quite true" to the fact that Ethereum is more secure.&nbsp;In <a href="https://2501babe.github.io/tools/revoken.html?fbclid=IwAR3ePYsbhIjaOsmSHDP9DRB2xXuZwFQzT-ZKNSHkVPL5btbqWPb5kFlDQzY" alt="solana token revoken" title="Solana token revoken Github" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" class="">his article</a>, ERC-20 transfers on Ethereum always use msg.sender as the token sender. A contract cannot circumvent the two-legged approval and transfer from the flow. On Solana, however, there is just transfer, which is restricted by a wallet signature or authorization. Programs are unable to distinguish between an origin and an intermediate when making cross-program calls.<img src="https://cdn.builder.news/news/11ed13a948e95db6a8e6023f659fee92.jpg" alt="Solana token revoken Github" title="Solana token revoken Github" width="600" height="225">Not to mention that Ethereum has its own advantage of being a first-mover in the market. Its developers and community members are more active. Solana lacks the security knowledge that Ethereum has acquired after being in operation for more than seven years (ever since 2015).Undeniably, the latest dramatic hack has badly affected the reputation of Solana and its newborn marketplace. At this moment, it should not have been any exploits that Magic Eden should suffer to maintain their initial outstanding performance. It is actually affecting Solana's reputation generally. Being a faster and cheaper network to make transactions on does not mean they can risk users' security.Now, to answer the question above, is 2% fixed gas fee worth paying all the assets in your wallet? Let your cold head decide.<div class="pr-block-special">Disclaimer: This article is intended for and only to be used for reference purposes only. No such information provided constitutes advice or a recommendation that any investment or trading strategy is suitable for any specific name.</div>

Find out which is better, NFTs on Ethereum or Solana?

NFTs on Ethereum vs Solana - Where to choose?