A battle of the NFT markets is going on in the NFT sector after Blur suggested its users to block their competitor, Open sea. On Wednesday, the zero-fee marketplace updated its royalty policy. Under the new rules, platform creators will earn full royalties for their collections if they lock their collections on OpenSea.
Here is everything you need to know about the dispute between OpenSea and Blur:
OpenSea vs. Blur: What happened?
It all started with OpenSea’s decision to ban NFT marketplaces that offer optional royalties, such as Blur. In November last year, OpenSea launched a tool for on-chain application of creator royalties for new NFT collections on the platform. What exactly did this mean? In order for royalties to be collectible on OpenSea after January 2, 2023, creators must use on-chain tools to prohibit the sale of their NFTs on optional royalty marketplaces.
As Blur is a royalty-optional marketplace, users must block the sale of their NFTs on Blur to get the full OpenSea royalties. If creators do not do this, OpenSea will automatically make their royalties optional. In short, creators can only earn full royalties on OpenSea or Blur, not both.
At the time, OpenSea noted how more and more creators and collectors are moving to markets with optional royalties. “Unless something changes soon, this space tends to pay significantly less fees to creators. No policy we put in place will reverse this trend if this behavior continues.”
What is Blur’s new policy?
On Wednesday, February 15, Blur shared a blog post detailing their updated creator royalty policy. Essentially, the platform will now impose royalty fees on NFTs whenever creators block their sales on OpenSea.
“Creators who whitelist both OpenSea and Blur should be able to earn royalties on both platforms.” Blur wrote in the blog post. “Today, OpenSea automatically sets royalties as optional when it detects transactions on Blur. We would like to welcome OpenSea to stop this policy so new collections can earn royalties everywhere.”
The announcement is the latest development in the ongoing controversy surrounding creator royalties. Last year, amid declining market conditions, several markets decided to make royalties optional. In fact, OpenSea pondered the idea at one point, before succumbing to pressure from the NFT community. It was then that OpenSea released its blocklist tool, which significantly affected Blur’s position.
How is NFT Twitter reacting to the OpenSea x Blur war?
Shortly after Blur published their blog post, NFT Twitter reacted strongly. NFT founder foobar, for example, tweeted:
“blur coming out guns burning, will impose full royalties on collections blocking the open sea. this was always the obvious result of protocols blacklisting your competition, less fun when the competition grows big enough to blacklist you again.”
Meanwhile, ThreadGuy wrote: “Blur declared WAR on the marketplace by imposing royalties on collections blocking Opensea trade LMFAOOOOOOO.”
It is still not clear who will win this battle: OpenSea or Blur?
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