Frank from DeGods shares his suggestion on how to enforce NFT royalties in Solana

by James · October 23, 2022

As NFT royalties continue to be widely discussed and debated, DeGod’s NFT creator Frank shared his own suggestion on how to deal with the royalty fiasco.
According to his plan, Frank envisions a new token standard that prevents NFTs from interacting with a list of blacklisted contracts. The list may include smart contracts from marketplaces that avoid creator fees.
He also suggests voting for a fixed royalty rate and coming up with a mechanism that allows existing projects to migrate to the new standard.

Without a doubt, NFT royalties have been such a big topic, especially among builders and creators in the Solana ecosystem.

Two weeks ago, the leading Solana NFT project, DeGods, and its upcoming collection, y00ts, adopted 0% royalties before Magic Eden bowed to pressure and made paying creator fees optional.

But “racing to the bottom” will only bring more negative consequences for the NFT ecosystem. With that in mind, DeGod’s pseudonymous co-founder Frank recently offered some suggestions on what can be done to deal with the royalty fiasco.

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How to enforce NFT royalties on chain, according to Frank

In his latest blog post, DeGod’s top dog went into detail on the pros and cons of current solutions, and what his plans are to address the shortcomings of these quick fixes.

For example, Frank observed that while Magic Eden’s NFT royalty enforcement tool – MetaShield – helps existing projects in some ways, it causes confusion during purchases and penalizes buyers more than sellers.

A few developers also suggested locking NFTs in the wallet to limit where the digital assets can be transferred or sold. But for now, the solution only applies to new mints, and Frank believes this could put too much power in the hands of the creators.

A new NFT standard with a list of blacklisted contracts

Since NFT royalties cannot be enforced at the protocol level, Frank proposes a more ecosystem-wide solution to tackle the problem.

The first step in his proposal involves creating a new token standard that prevents NFTs from interacting with a list of blacklisted contracts. The list may include marketplaces and platforms that avoid royalties – regularly updated and voted on by the community.

Agree on a fixed royalty rate and migrate existing projects to the new standard

Once the standard is established, Frank explains, there must be a reliable, on-chain voting method to allow the greater Solana NFT community to determine a fixed royalty rate. It will be easier to include more users if it is based on a fee that the majority agrees on.

After that, there should be a mechanism to help existing projects migrate to the new standard. Creators can then focus on providing value to NFT holders who chose the royalty-friendly ecosystem.

Mainstream adoption of the new standard

According to Frank, none of these ideas will work if the new NFT standard fails to achieve widespread adoption among Solana NFT marketplaces and wallets, as well as creators and holders in the space.

But if done right, it will result in a healthier, balanced NFT ecosystem where creators are guaranteed their cut without making a big dent in the holders’ pockets. Given that, the DeGods co-founder is ready to discuss further how to make this a reality.

“We can either accept royalties going to zero as ‘tragedy of the commons,’ or we can come together as a community to solve the problem,” Frank wrote.

“This whole ecosystem is driven by social consensus. If we all decide we want royalties, there’s a way to make this happen. If we don’t, that’s fine too. The key is we everyone controls our destiny as an ecosystem.”