Earlier this year, OpenSea—one of the largest platforms for trading non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—announced it would phase out mandatory royalty fees for creators, undermining what many Web3 advocates considered a cornerstone of blockchain-based art: fair compensation for artists.
Web3 ecosystems, built on blockchain, are supposed to provide artists with greater control over how their work is distributed and the compensation they receive in return. Unlike traditional Web2 digital platforms—the standard internet—blockchain tech, theoretically, allows artists to track the resale of their work through an open, distributed ledger. Meanwhile, smart contract codes attached to the digital artwork are supposed to ensure artists receive royalty payments on subsequent resales.
