With the ongoing conversation around royalties almost coming up a year now, it’s an excellent time to address the elephant in the room.
Due to current market conditions, Mad Masks has created an independent marketplace courtesy of Rarible, which respects the royalty on sales. Feel free to use this website directly to buy or sell your Mad Mask tokens.
Visit the Mad Mask Marketplace
OpenSea has recently placed a strong position on optional royalties, following in the footsteps of Blur and other platforms that have gone this route.
Options are good, but the smaller collections are getting rekt more than average with this current approach.
Predecessors initially shaped the Web3 NFT space to empower creators to make something and continue to be supported on any sales after the fact by receiving a small fee for their work in perpetuity. It was a main draw and attractive for artists and creators seeking sustainable models.
As there was technically always a way around royalties, the argument that the contract should enforce this is a moot point.
The debate revolves around utility, promises made and whether or not *most* creators are being greedy. I feel conflicted as good arguments have been made regarding existing owners not having to front royalties vs. new token purchases eating the costs, and so on.
And it leads to more significant picture questions around sustainable business models, long-term viability and multiple revenue streams.
Ultimately, leaders in the space should champion creators as they create the content while the platforms still make their transaction fees. Things should be honoured and simple, is our position and yet there are some things we need control over. Changing direction based on following trends is a slippery slope downward.
The other challenge is obvious: if there is no sales volume, there would be no royalties to work within the first place (assuming you were collecting any to start with). Current issues are partly due to the bear market, low NFT activity overall and chasing the latest meta from the “next big thing” to meme coins to Friend Tech. And so we generally face many obstacles to overcome (without making many more excuses).
I’m still trying to understand what this means for the space overall, but I know things tend to happen quickly and shift gears often here. Regardless, we continue to show up despite the circumstances and mask on.
Feel free to share your thoughts anytime by engaging with us in the member area or on “X,” formerly Twitter.
Thanks for all your support and I hope to see more taking advantage of the new marketplace soon!
I am still hopeful for the ones who are here because we are the ones that shape what tomorrow looks like.
Here’s to the independents still showing up regardless.
