Magic Eden Launches $1 Million Hackathon to Innovate on NFT Creator Monetization and Royalty Tools

In response to the growing trend away from static creator royalties, Magic Eden, the leading cross-chain NFT platform, announced that it would be introducing a Creator Monetization Hackathon with up to $1M investment to support the development of pro-NFT royalties and alternative monetization tools on Solana.

As a platform committed to equally serving both collectors and creators, Magic Eden is ready to offer resourcing that will allow creators to contend with a rapidly changing market. With the $1M Creator Monetization Hackathon, Magic Eden will be fostering the creation of new creator business models as well as collaborating with partners to develop tools that support a sustainable creator ecosystem.

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Magic Eden CEO and Co-Founder Jack Lu commented on today’s news: “We’ve recently experienced seismic shifts in the NFT ecosystem. The movement away from creator royalties has been an unfortunate trend, but one that seems inevitable given that royalties are not enforceable at the protocol level. It is a trend that we are hoping can be reversed long-term. To accelerate new innovations on creator business models and royalty protecting tools, we are running a $1M Hackathon with the community to develop new creator royalties tools that will protect and support creators. We believe this initiative will help us continue to champion a creator-centric business. Our hope is that this is a temporary circumstance and that royalties return as a consistently viable business model in the future.”

For NFT creators, the potential to receive regular royalties from future sales has attracted thousands of talented creatives to enter the web3 space. Since royalties are not enforceable on the blockchain, and, in practice, are only payable at the discretion of the platform and collector, users are increasingly opting to purchase NFTs on platforms that allow them to bypass royalty fees. Effective today, Magic Eden will also be enabling optional royalties on their platform and allowing NFT buyers to opt into full, half, or no royalties. The Creator Monetization Hackathon will help reduce the business impact felt during this transition to an optional creator royalty model and will also incubate tools that will protect royalty revenue and explore new models of monetization.

It is evident that creators need alternative monetization tools and the second part of the Creator Monetization Hackathon will help cover the initial costs of experimentation for creators. In lieu of royalties, creators at this time can explore holding a portion of their supply to introduce back to the market later or set up their own liquidity pools. Top projects can also be able to explore ancillary revenue streams with Boots, a protocol that allows users to customize trait/skins-based SFTs (semi-fungible tokens) for their existing NFTs. Creators who have a compelling monetization model or are exploring royalty protection tools will be able to apply to the hackathon for grant money and investment support.

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