OpenSea Launch Tool For Creator Fee On-Chain Enforcement

As a way of putting the power to enforce creation fees often referred to as royalties into the hands of creators, the Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea has introduced a suite of tools for creator fee on-chain enforcement on new collections.

As per a statement published on the OpenSea Blog, this is the first version of these tools and it will be released on November 8th.

“When the NFT standard was created in 2018, creator fees (sometimes referred to as ‘royalties’) did not exist. OpenSea supported them early to invite more creators into the space, and we hoped at the time that they would be durable. But the last few months have proven that off-chain enforcement is too brittle. 

Notably, on marketplaces where these fees are optional, we’ve watched the voluntary creator fee payment rate dwindle to less than 20%. And on other marketplaces, creator fees are simply not paid at all,” an excerpt stated

Taking cognizance of these difficulties and drudgery, OpenSea decided to come up with this “thoughtful, principled approach to solving this problem.”

Apart from this on-chain fee enforcement, the NFT marketplace intends to contribute additional tools and improvements for on-chain enforcement while reaching out to the community for feedback concerning the tools.

OpenSea Tool Focus on New NFT Collections

While speaking at an interview with The Block, Devin Finzer, Chief Executive Officer of the OpenSea marketplace outlined, “We’re interested in making a better system. Our thinking is always to take a step back and think of all the possible solutions to the problem rather than going with a portion of the industry.”

OpenSea expressed its commitment to working on community feedback to provide solutions to existing collections as the case may be.

Meanwhile, no changes will be made to existing collections through at least December 8, 2022. Some other possibilities are being considered including enforcing off-chain fees for some subsets of collections, allowing optional creator fees, and many others. 

At the end of the day, “OpenSea will check new collections to see if their items are able to be sold on marketplaces that do not enforce creator fees. OpenSea will enforce creator fees for new collections that use an on-chain enforcement tool. OpenSea will not enforce creator fees for new collections that do not implement on-chain enforcement.”

More than a year ago, Fantom Foundation went ahead to launch a marketplace in a bid to reduce creator fees.