- NFT marketplace Blur has openly declared war on OpenSea concerning creator royalties
- Blur advised creators on its platform to block their creations from being listed on OpenSea for them to receive full royalties
- Blur wants OpenSea to stop discriminating against the marketplace
NFT marketplace Blur has openly declared war on OpenSea by requesting creators to block their creations from being traded on OpenSea if they want to set compulsory royalties during listing. Blur, which supports the optional-royalties approach, said that the policy change is meant to compel the leading NFT marketplace to stop discriminating against marketplaces with a different take on creator fees. This comes two weeks after Blur claimed it found a way to circumvent OpenSea’s blocklist rules and just days after releasing its much-awaited exchange token.
Block OpenSea for Blur Tokens
According to Blur, OpenSea automatically enables “optional” creator fees when an NFT artist allows their artwork to be traded on Blur when listing them on OpenSea. The exchange noted that the approach hinders creators from receiving royalties from both platforms at the same time. In its updated policy, Blur provided four options to creators with each having an impact on creators’ fees.
Yesterday we made an update to our royalty policy. Here’s the blog post accompanying that – it was meant to go out yesterday but due to the launch mayhem we weren’t able to publish until now. https://t.co/jeRcQYkvAr
— Blur (@blur_io) February 15, 2023
Although there’s an option allowing artists to let collectors decide whether or not to pay royalties, Blur put weight on the option that lets creators block the leading marketplace, sweetening it with a promise for creators “to receive [Blur token] Season 2 rewards.” However, Blur offers another option that lets creators whitelist both marketplaces enabling them to receive royalties from the two NFT trading platforms.
An Expected Move
Some in the crypto community supported Blur’s move terming it an “obvious outcome of protocols” blacklisting their competition, while others said it presented a worthy challenge to OpenSea’s dominance.
blur coming out guns blazing, will enforce full royalties on collections that block opensea
this was always the obvious outcome of protocols who blacklist their competition, less fun when the competition grows big enough to blacklist you back https://t.co/vWRVfWGOpX pic.twitter.com/Dj7gdI5Prc
— foobar (@0xfoobar) February 15, 2023
Creator royalties have always been an emotive issue with NFT marketplaces and creators divided on whether to support compulsory creator kickbacks. With OpenSea having an on-chain tool to filter anti-royalties marketplaces, it’s yet to be seen whether Blur’s blazing guns will force it to rethink its policy.
