Leading Solana NFT marketplace Magic Eden has changed its position on creator royalties, launching the Open Creator Protocol (OCP) that will allow creators to ban marketplaces that don’t implement royalties.
“The Solana community has been waiting for solutions to NFT royalties,” said Jack Lu, CEO and Co-Founder of Magic Eden, in a press release.
“We have been in active conversations with multiple ecosystem partners to identify solutions for creators in a timely manner. Our intention with Open Creator Protocol is to immediately support royalties for creators launching new collections, while continuing to coordinate with ecosystem partners for more solutions.”
In addition, OCP offers new features, such as dynamic royalties, a function that establishes a relationship between NFT prices and royalty amounts, cutting down the costs for high-priced NFTs.
The protocol is already active on the platform and will remain optional for collections that do not wish to restrict other marketplaces.
Since the launch of decentralized marketplaces, creator royalties were fast dwindling, especially on Solana, where most marketplaces had switched to optional royalties.
As a solution, last month, Opensea became the first marketplace to launch a toolkit that blocks out marketplaces that don’t honor creator royalties. Days after, competitor LooksRare introduced a similar system.
Magic Eden had enforced royalties up till October when a string of competing marketplaces waived off creator royalties to compete with NFT AMMs like SudoSwap and HadeSwap. The platform began losing market share to these rivals and was forced to make royalties optional.
“Unfortunately, royalties are not enforceable on a protocol level, so we have had to adapt to shifting market dynamics,” Magic Eden had said back then while suggesting that the decision isn’t permanent and it’s working on alternate solutions.
In the coming days, more marketplaces are expected to follow suit, rejuvenating the prospects of NFTs, which appeared gloomy only a month ago.
