OpenSea laid out its plan for helping creators on its platform enforce creator fee payments.
Marketplace giant OpenSea laid out the first of a suite of tools for its users, allowing creators of new NFT collections to enforce royalties on-chain.
The company said it wants to take a thoughtful, principled approach to this topic, following a protracted debate among players in the market about the correct course of action for enforcing payments to creators.
In the coming months, the company will produce additional tools serving a similar purpose and solicit community feedback on the developments.
For existing collections wanting options to enforce creator payments, it said that it would wait to roll out any changes until at least Dec. 8.
The company is considering a range of approaches. These may include continuing to enforce off-chain fees for some subsets of collections, allowing optional creator fees, or collaborating on other on-chain enforcement options for creators. The smart contracts of some existing collections may already allow OpenSea’s upgrade, which would enforce royalties on-chain, while other contracts will be a bigger challenge to change.
The moves come as marketplaces across the board are scrambling to set out their stalls as the primary venue for NFT trading. Some marketplaces, such as Solana marketplace Magic Eden, have opted to cut creator fees altogether or make them optional, while others such as Stepn’s new NFT marketplace Mooar, have moved to a subscription model.
OpenSea’s voice on the subject had been conspicuously absent, as the marketplace that clocks the lion’s share of NFT market trading volume.
