Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
OpenSea is embracing creator royalty payments, rolling out code to embed fee requirements right into smart contracts.
Why it matters: The leading NFT marketplace operator will enable recurring payments on-chain, even as the rest of the industry appears poised to break from them.
Driving the news: Starting Nov. 8, OpenSea will enforce creator fees for new Ethereum NFT collections, the firm's CEO and founder Devin Finzer announced Saturday.
What they're saying: "We believe creators should have the power to build the collections and communities that they desire, and buyers and sellers should continue to have the freedom to choose which collections they do and don’t engage with," Finzer said in a blog post.
Yes, but: The premise of that freedom to choose begins to look dubious for a hypothetical buyer of these royalty-enforced NFTs.
How it works: The code Ethereum NFT creators can insert into their newly created collections' smart contracts bar them from being traded on other NFT marketplaces that don't enforce royalties.
