Reports said that Solana-based Magic Eden has become the latest nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace to shift to an optional royalties model, following in the footsteps of X2Y2 in August.
It has been reported that under the optional royalties model, buyers are given the power to set the royalties they want to contribute to an NFT project, meaning there is a chance that some creators may not receive royalties when their artworks are sold.
However, in an October 14 post, the NFT marketplace noted that the decision came after “difficult reflection and discussions with many creators” and came as the “market has been shifting towards optional creator royalties for awhile.”
The report said that the NFT marketplace shared a graph showing that the number of cumulative wallets using optional royalty marketplaces to buy or sell NFTs skyrocketed in late September. The move has been met with split opinions from Twitter’s NFT community, with some seeing the move as positive for the long-term health of the industry, while others have labeled skipping royalties as akin to “theft.”
Well-known NFT artist Mike “Beeple” Winkleman pointed out to his 700,000 followers on October 15 that while he doesn’t love what Magic Eden and others are doing, the switch from a seller’s fee to a buyer’s premium could be better for the industry long term.
Thus, others were more critical of the change. Brocolli DAO argued that “royalties are needed in an immature ecosystem,” noting that as per their calculations, they’ve already lost as much as $27,000 in royalties due to 0% purchases on other marketplaces.
Source: Cointelegraph