OpenSea rolls out new tool to help enforce NFT royalties

Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea has announced a new on-chain tool to help creators enforce royalties.

The tool will apply to collections listed on the platform starting November 8. Collections created using this tool will be blocked from being resold on marketplaces that do not enforce royalties, fees that traders need to pay to creators.

As for existing collections on the platform, OpenSea said it is still considering different options, ranging from continuing to enforce off-chain fees, allowing optional creator fees to collaborating on other on-chain enforcement options for creators. In the meantime, the platform will hold conversations with its communities to garner their views.

The aim of introducing the tool is to “balance the scales by putting more power in creators’ hands to control their business model,” OpenSea said. 

It comes amid an increasing number of marketplaces that allow royalties to be optional for traders. It also follows heated debate in Web3 communities on the subject over the past few months.

In a November 6 blog post, OpenSea chief executive Devin Finzer wrote that in marketplaces where fees are optional, the voluntary creator fee payment rate could dwindle to less than 20 per cent, while in other marketplaces royalties are “simply not paid at all.”

“It’s clear that many creators want the ability to enforce fees on-chain; and fundamentally, we believe that the choice should be theirs to make – it shouldn’t be a decision made for them by marketplaces,” Finzer wrote.