As you may already know, over the past week, there have been numerous online discussions regarding certain NFT marketplaces, including OpenSea, preventing artists from collecting ongoing royalties for their work. 

As an artist-run DAO, we believe artists deserve to be fairly financially compensated for the work they create. This was one of the original selling points of web3 for our community and has always been core to our ethos. We also understand that artists often create their best work when they feel safe, stable, and comfortable. In a social system that operates (for better or worse) within capitalism, financial compensation is often the mechanism that creates that stability. In its most benevolent form, web3 envisions a future that frees artists from the oppressive systems and technologies that have controlled the way we create and consume art in all its varying forms. We feel that the choice to not enforce artist royalty payments on secondary sales is in direct opposition to the web3 that we’re trying to build.

Yesterday, as we were preparing to send out the REFRACT PASS, our lead web3 dev identified an issue with how OpenSea would handle any NFTs coming from outside its own platform, specifically with regard to collecting ongoing royalties. 

Since learning of these new requirements for royalty enforcement, Zora, our strategic partner, has been working on a technical solution to ensure artists are still able receive secondary royalties on NFT collections including the REFRACT PASS drop. This new implementation requires robust testing to best protect the Refraction community. As a result, the REFRACT PASS drop (and the airdrop to S00 NFT holders, founding artists + team) will be postponed until next week.   

After much consideration internally, we have also made the decision to announce that we will be moving forward with building an artist-run marketplace, in partnership with Zora, for the RefractionDAO community, where rights surrounding ongoing royalties will be enshrined in the contract. We have spoken with many of our artists around this, and it is clear that now is the time for action. All REFRACT PASS holders will be allowlisted into the marketplace when it launches, as verified collectors on the platform. There is a larger plan here to release the source code into the greater ecosystem, for the benefit of the community as a whole.

We appreciate OpenSea for listening to the community and ultimately making the decision to continue supporting artist’s rights. We also want to thank the incredible team at Zora for quickly responding to the changing circumstances around royalties and the REFRACT PASS drop.  We’re grateful for partners like Zora who understand the kind of world in Web3 we’re trying to build.  

There will be more updates soon, and we will continue to be transparent. 

Malcolm + The Refraction Team