Tensions erupt between Magic Eden and Metaplex over the future of Solana NFTs

Solana hair been zero point for the ongoing industry debate over enforcing royalties for NFT creatorsand now long-running disputes between major players in the space have spilled over into social media as developers try to change the course of the Solana NFT space.

IN a tweet thread on Thursday, Metaplex – the creator of Solana’s NFT standard – alleged that top Solana marketplace Magic Eden was leading a “coordinated pressure campaign” to try to take control of the standard. A standard sets the parameters and functionality of a token, in this case a non-fungible token (NFT) with features that are unique from other similar tokens. As the creator of the token standard for NFTs on Solana, Metaplex essentially wrote the code and holds the keys for virtually every NFT minted on the network.

Metaplex in its tweet thread today also named Jordan Prince, who helped develop the original Metaplex protocol while working at Solana Labs, as a co-conspirator along with Magic Eden. Prince went on to found B+J Studios, which raised $10 million in September to develop NFT infrastructure.

“Metaplex was built to elevate creators and artists above traditional gatekeepers, but the same commercial dynamics have resurfaced in Solana NFTs and are trying to push us into a half-baked governance system to take the standard out of the community’s hands,” the startup wrote.

Responding to allegations that it has a monopoly on NFTs on Solana, Metaplex said today that it will publish plans to decentralize control of the standard and that it “[agrees] with the root need to decentralize the program.” However, the firm added that it will not do so “accidentally to appease a group acting in bad faith.”

Magic Eden then responded with a separate tweet threadand wrote that Metaplex had “falsely accused us of trying to take control of the NFT standard on SOL.”

The marketplace then alleged that Metaplex is trying to retain control of the standard in favor of holders of the MPLX management token, which it launched in September. Magic Eden said it and other Solana builders had provided feedback to Metaplex about the plans, but suggested that Metaplex had undue influence over Solana’s NFT standard.

“[Metaplex has] a god mode key that allows them to change how it works,” Magic Eden tweeted about the default functionality, “and plan to manage it for the benefit of their token holders.”

This isn’t the first time Magic Eden and Metaplex have been at odds over the direction of the Solana NFT ecosystem, but the dispute is spreading to the public like never before.

Back in August, a source close to Metaplex said Decrypt that Magic Eden’s approach to taking care of users’ listed NFTs was a potential security risk, and that Magic Eden had rejected attempts by Metaplex to help open source the closed source code. Magic Eden’s marketplace is based on early Metaplex code, but has been heavily modified and closed.

Lately, Magic Eden and Metaplex seem to be going separate ways on the contentious issue of enforcing creator royalties on secondary market NFT sales. A creator royalty is a small fee, typically between 5% and 10% of the sale price, paid by the seller automatically to the original creator of the project through the relevant marketplace.

Royalties cannot be fully enforced on the chain with current standards at Solana and Ethereum like, however. Magic Eden moved to makes payment of royalties optional for traders in October after a wave of rival marketplaces – which had already made similar moves – stole away a significant part of the market share.

Metaplex then announced plans to develop a new royalty-enforcing NFT asset class standard, MIP-1, to be launched in January. However, Magic Eden announced its own protocol last week, which allows creators of new Solana NFT projects to block those assets from being traded on marketplaces that don’t respect royalties.

Magic Eden CEO Jack Lu told Decrypt last week that it had shared its tool with Metaplex ahead of the announcement. However, in a Twitter Spaces today, Lu shared that he was frustrated by what he said were delays on Metaplex’s part in completing the MIP-1 standard.

“Magic Eden has been eating crap all along,” Lu said in Spaces regarding its move to make royalties optional, suggesting that Metaplex had been dragging its feet on a solution. “There’s no rush here.”

At Spaces that host Magic Eden, such as Metaplex refused to participatePrince said Magic Eden and other companies in the area had proposed a new decentralized governance model for Metaplex’s token metadata standard, which would see seven individual companies or projects on Solana each have three votes over the system.

According to Prince, other proposed participants beyond Metaplex and Magic Eden would have included Solana wallet maker Phantom and the research firm Hello Moon. Prince said that Metaplex dismissed the proposal, alleging that Magic Eden and its allies were colluding to steal control of the Solana NFT standard. Metaplex’s tweets today are consistent with that view.

Lu added in Spaces that Magic Eden intended to support Metaplex’s new asset standard, but that Metaplex needed to decentralize the management of the token metadata standard first.

All along was Rohun “Frank” Vora – the creator of DeGods and y00tsstarted two of Solana’s largest NFT projects presses on Wednesday for Solana NFT marketplaces to opt back into enforcing royalties as a means of “social consensus”. Frank had previously royalty fees removed from his October collections as marketplaces largely pushed back against them.

Nearly two months after Magic Eden’s royalty shift, the Solana ecosystem is still grappling with the aftermath and how to ultimately pursue a path forward that supports creators. But if the recent accusations between Metaplex and Magic Eden are any indication, it may be difficult to find consensus with two of the most vital participants so publicly at odds.