Bored Ape Yacht Club’s (BAYC) leadership have mulled changing current policies on paying royalties to non-fungible token (NFT) creatives.
Wylie Aronow, BAYC’s founder, wrote in a blog post on Tuesday backed by co-founders Kerem Atalay and Greg Solano that creator royalties were the “single most important factor” attracting creatives to the ecosystem.
Some thoughts on creator royaltieshttps://t.co/hKB5eQKZ93
— GordonGoner.eth (Wylie Aronow) (@GordonGoner) November 8, 2022
He stated that marketplaces worldwide had moved from softening commitments to enforcing royalties to “outright ditching them in a race to the bottom in an attempt to gain market share.”
Citing OpenSea’s recent move to enforce royalties, he slammed them for moving “with the rest of the herd” and removing creator royalties for legacy collections “while keeping their trading fee the same across the board.”
Adding, he wrote: ”For as much as NFTs have been about users truly owning their digital assets, they’ve also been about empowering creators.”
BAYC New Model for NFTs
The founders jointly tabled a new NFT royalty roadmap, which includes the following,
- Incoming transfers would require checks to verify whether they were regular wallets (EOA) or smart contracts.
- Normal wallets would pass for transactions, namely as they are used in over-the-counter trading or to move user “NFTs around.”
- Smart contracts would receive checks for “an oracle of contracts that are known to respect royalties.” Those not showing such verifiers would be blocked.
Speaking further, Aronow added it was small, stating there were only a “handful of known good actors today” and that the allow list would only require adding marketplaces that pay creator fees.”
Despite this, maintaining such lists would pose future challenges, the three executives said, noting it could affect the governing body of the platform.
The blog continued, stating: “The real work is just in figuring out what this governing body looks like. But I think that’s a solvable problem for the NFT ecosystem to take on.”
NFT artists have lauded the response, with Mike Winkelmann, or Beeple, stating it “could be a great path forward to protect these royalties.”
He added he supported moving from seller’s fees to buyer’s premiums, which would “help a lot with compliance.
A smart creator focussed solution – and wouldn’t it be something if we already rallied hundreds of founders together 🫡 let’s go!
— BETTY (@betty_nft) November 8, 2022
User BETTY, who founded the Deadfellaz NFT community, praised the plans as a “smart creator focussed solution” and hoped it would gather the support of “hundreds of founders together.”
The 1 reason I got into NFT’s and web3 is creator royalties. I was inspired to be part of this innovative way all creators could finally be protected in the future thanks to smart contracts. Now its in jeopardy of going away. Thank you for setting forth ideas to solve this
— Guy Oseary (@guyoseary) November 8, 2022
User Guy Oseary explained that he joined the NFT and Web3 community for creator royalties. He continued that he was inspired to “be part of this innovative” space where creators could protect their revenues “thanks to smart contracts.”
