Why OpenSea sticks to NFT Creator royalties

As the leading NFT marketplace, OpenSea’s guidelines carry a lot of weight – and by November, many creators and collectors alike were wondering $13.3 billion startupits stance on royalties to creators. But when OpenSea finally spoke out about the issue, it commented just created more questionswhich causes backlash from the creators.

Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of OpenSea, said Decrypt that the firm analyzed market data and spoke with creators ahead of the announcement, and that it hoped to open a dialogue with more of the NFT community. Finzer said his team was “surprised” by the level of pushback, which he attributed to “the ambiguity in how we handled existing collections.”

“Our goal there was really to start a conversation with creators. And I think we really did that, in a lot of ways,” Finzer said. “A lot of people came out super active and wanted to tell us their perspective. In some ways, although there was a mixed reaction, it was actually a very healthy discussion.”

OpenSea has long respected fees set by the creator on secondary sales, although they are not fully enforceable on-chain. But in recent months, rival platforms has gutted royalties in the name of cheaper transactions for traders, turn the NFT space on its head and throw a curveball at creators deal with falling prices and demand.

On 5 November said OpenSea that they were considering their options and would continue to consult with the NFT community. It also launched a tool that would let creators of new Ethereum NFT projects block marketplaces that do not fully respect royalties. But for existing projects, OpenSea cited the possibility of making creation fees optional for traders.

It did not go well with many creators. The Bored Ape Yacht Club founders called OpenSea’s plan “not good,” while pseudonym Deadfellas co-creator Betty said that the firm’s communications with her were “misleading” and that “the facts are not there.” Streetwear brand The Hundreds canceled a planned NFT release on the platform.

OpenSea planned to make a decision by December 8, but instead acted within days. On November 9, the firm said it would continue to enforce royalties for creators on all existing NFT projects, notes in a tweet thread that it heard the feedback from society “loud and clear”.

While creators and many collectors applauded OpenSea’s move, it wasn’t a clear business decision for the company. Although the firm believes royalties — typically a 5% to 10% fee paid by the seller and taken from the secondary sale price — are important to the industry, some traders vote their crypto on royalty-clouding platforms, cutting into OpenSea’s market share.

In deciding how to ultimately proceed with the royalty issue, Finzer said Decrypt that maintaining trust in creators is important, and that developing a new on-chain enforcement model – to block certain marketplaces – was part of that mentality.

OpenSea’s move is already making waves. On Friday, rival marketplace X2Y2 announced that it will honor creates royalties on all projects, citing OpenSea’s “bold move.” As a result, OpenSea removed X2Y2 from the blocklist, meaning that NFTs from projects using the tool can now be traded on that marketplace.

“It’s a demonstration that leadership in the space can really drive better systems and better technology,” Finzer said Decrypt“and that if you lead with solutions, people will follow and support them.”

He said the initial blocklist was a “v0” rendering and that there is room for improvement, including working with the community to decentralize control over the list of royalty-rejecting marketplaces. But the real ambition, according to Finzer, is to eventually have an empty blocklist – if other marketplaces besides X2Y2 follow OpenSea’s lead.

“We really want the block list to go to zero,” Finzer confirmed.