What are NFT Royalties & How Bitcoin Ordinals Help in '24

With the emergence of Bitcoin ordinals, and their supposed incompatibility with NFT royalties, it’s worthwhile to review:

• What NFT royalties are
• How they work
• Their benefits and downsides.

This topic is important because whether you’re an artist or an investor of digital art, each Blockchain’s royalty payments could determine whether or not to invest your time and money in it. For example, Bitcoin is fundamentally incompatible with royalties, while Ethereum isn’t. Does that make Ethereum a more attractive blockchain for investors, artists and content creators? Not necessarily.

This article explains the nuances of NFT royalties in more detail, and how bitcoin ordinals treat them. 

What are NFT royalties?

NFT (non fungible tokens) royalties are mechanisms allowing NFT creators to earn royalty percentage on secondary sales across NFT marketplaces. An NFT royalty provides a continuous income stream for creators and gives them control over their art. 

How do NFT royalties work?

NFT royalties work via smart contracts, which are self-executing agreements. So when terms and conditions are met, they are enforced on the exchanges. 

Once a piece of digital art or a digital artwork is created, the NFT artist can establish a smart contract with a royalty agreement to their preferences (between usually 5-15% of the sale price). When the NFT is sold, the smart contract automatically executes and sends the royalty amount to the creator’s digital wallet. The payment is typically made in cryptocurrency, like ethereum. 

The entire transaction is transparent and automated, ensuring timely payments and eliminating manual interventions and intermediaries.

What are the benefits of NFT royalty payments?

The following are the benefits of NFT royalty payments:

1. Continuous revenue for creators

NFT royalties provide artists with an ongoing income stream. This serves as recognition of their original work, and ensures their compensation. This supports their current works that are in development and incentivizes them to keep producing high-quality content. 

2. Value distribution for all parties

The royalty system helps distribute value more fairly within the NFT ecosystem. This is achieved through creators, collectors, speculators, and platforms all profiting from NFT trades in different amounts.

3. Enhanced value proposition

Royalties incentivize creators to promote their work and remain engaged with their audience. This can increase the value of their existing collections which are in owners’ hands. The increased desirability can lead to higher resale prices. 

4. Community-building 

NFT owners and creators are part of the same ecosystem. So a thriving market with an active creator community, propelled on by royalties by part, can increase the overall value of the NFT space. Owners’ individual NFTs can indirectly benefit from reputation and value growth of the NFT market. 

5. Encouraging authentic and scarce works 

Royalties are tied to market demand that rewards and appreciates originality. So creators are more likely to benefit from the resale of unique, limited edition works. The implication is creators creating catalogs of distinctive, rare digital art, enhancing the value of NFTs held by collectors.

What are the negatives of NFT royalties?

The downsides of an NFT royalty system include:

1. Unclear royalty terms

NFTs’ royalties terms can vary. And it can be to the owner and creator’s detriment if they are unfamiliar with it. For example, Superare, a marketplace of luxury digital art, gives collectors 90% and creators 10% on secondary sales. But on Binance Smart Chain, the value is on a spectrum of 0-10%. And this year, X2Y2 and Magic Eden have opted to make royalty payments optional, and its inclusion in trade a case-by-case matter between the buyer and the seller. 

The lack of consistency across blockchains can lead to over/underestimation of royalty calculation. 

2. Platform limitations

Not all platforms, or side-chains, support automatic royalty payments or royalty standards, like ERC-1155 on Ethereum. Incompatible payment mechanisms can lead to confusion and potential disputes if the NFT is created on one blockchain and sold on another one that doesn’t support royalties. 

We weren’t able to find any real-life scenario of such an incident. But theoretically, an artist could transfer an NFT from one blockchain to another through bridging services or wrapped tokens, only for the new blockchain to not recognize/support the royalty mechanisms of the original blockchain.

3. Tax implications

Gains from NFT sales may be taxable, depending on the jurisdiction. This can complicate the financial aspects of NFT sales, as buyers and sellers need to understand and comply with applicable tax laws and reporting requirements.

4. Smart contracts’ vulnerabilities

Smart contracts can have vulnerabilities or errors, such as integer arithmetic, that could lead to disputes or incorrect royalty distribution.

5. Price manipulation & wash trading

Market players could try and manipulate the NFT market by wash trading or artificially inflating the value of an NFT, ultimately affecting royalty revenue. This can result in mistrust and confusion in the market.

6. Ethical concerns

Some NFT creators may use royalties as a way to profit from controversial or objectionable content, which could dissuade potential buyers from purchasing the NFT.

7. Decreased liquidity

NFTs and cryptocurrencies are meant to be decentralized and permission-less. Having to pay royalties, or abiding by a royalty policy, complicates a sale and slows the turn around speed.

How do Bitcoin Ordinals address creator royalties?

Bitcoin ordinals (i.e. ordinal inscriptions) are minted on satoshis and stored on Bitcoin. To create ordinal inscriptions, you can leverage no-code inscription tools.

Bitcoin ordinals natively do not support royalties because they leverage the Bitcoin blockchain. The reasons why Bitcoin cannot natively support royalties include, but aren’t limited to: 

1. Limited scripting language: Bitcoin’s scripting language is limited in functionality than more advanced languages like Ethereum’s Solidity. This makes it difficult to implement complex logic, like royalty distribution, via smart contracts.
2. Scalability: Bitcoin’s limited transaction throughput and slow confirmation times can make it unsuitable for handling a high volume of NFT transactions, which would be necessary for managing and distributing creator royalties efficiently. 

For more on NFTs and Ordinal Inscriptions

To learn more about NFTs and Ordinal Inscriptions, read:

• Top 5 Differences Between Ordinal Inscriptions vs NFTs
• Top 9 Benefits of Ordinal Inscriptions
• 5 Factors to Consider about NFT Drops