This comes as a first step in establishing standards on enforceable royalty payments across the Web3 industry. Ultimately, the aim is to protect over $1.8 billion worth of creator royalties. Let’s take a closer look at what Immutable’s enforceable royalties policy is all about.
Creator royalty payments have been making headlines recently after several NFT marketplaces made it optional. The list includes giants such as Magic Eden, as well as, LooksRare, which even scrapped creator royalties. Needless to say, optional royalties drastically affect creators who earn through royalty payments.
However, the problem arises from the fact that royalties are not enforceable on-chain. Instead, it is up to the NFT marketplaces to enforce them. On the contrary, Immutable previously implemented enforceable royalties via ImmutableX. Now, it aims to extend the model to Ethereum by creating a whitelist and blacklist for smart contracts honouring royalty fees.
In other words, creators will be able to use these community-governed lists to decide which smart contracts can send or receive their NFTs. This way, users will only be trading through contracts that respect creator royalties.
At the end of the day, Immutable’s aim is to create a Web3 ecosystem where creators have control over their royalty model. For this, it is essential for creators, users, and NFT marketplaces to work together. Moreover, Immutable is also planning to create a working group alongside leaders from NFT marketplaces, games, and creators.
“Our vision is an ecosystem where creators have a choice over their royalty model and level of enforceability, and users can vote with their feet when it comes to the projects they feel strike the best balance,” said Alex Connolly, Co-Founder & CTO of Immutable. “Soft-enforced royalties only serve to punish users who are trying to support projects and massively reduce the confidence creators and game studios can have in their revenue streams. Royalties, structured correctly, provide significant long-term incentive alignment.”
