Opensea Cuts Fees Temporarily and Makes Creator Royalties Optional Amid Battle With Blur

Opensea, one of the leading digital marketplaces for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has recently announced changes to its fee structure and creator earnings model. While Opensea’s decision to drop its fees to 0% for a promotional period of time may seem like a positive development for buyers and sellers, the move to make creator royalties optional (even with the 0.5% default fee) is a net-negative move for the web3 ecosystem. This change puts the burden on artists and project founders to ensure they are compensated fairly for their work, without any guarantees of support from the marketplace.

The decision to make creator earnings optional is concerning, particularly given the massive shift in the NFT ecosystem towards marketplaces that do not fully enforce creator earnings. While Opensea has worked to defend creator earnings on ALL collections when others didn’t, they are now willing to sacrifice this commitment in order to bring users back to the platform. This change reflects the broader challenges facing the web3 ecosystem, as marketplaces and platforms struggle to balance profitability and decentralization.

At Blockfrens, we are concerned about the impact of Opensea’s decision on artists and project founders, particularly those from underserved and marginalized communities. As a non-profit organization committed to empowering these communities in the rapidly evolving web3 space, we believe promoting transparency and fairness in all aspects of the ecosystem is important. We encourage Opensea to reconsider its decision and to work towards a more equitable and decentralized future for all ecosystem participants.

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