ImmutableX has released a solution for enforcing NFT royalties on Ethereum

Immutable is launching an Ethereum product that it claims will help enforce the payment of creator royalties.

According to the release, it will function as a community-governed whitelist and blacklist for smart contracts that honor royalty fees. These lists will allow NFT creators to control the smart contracts that can transfer or receive NFTs from their collection, ensuring that users can only trade through royalty-respecting contracts.

ImmutableX, the company’s Ethereum-scaling Layer 2 NFT platform, is already using the solution. IMX token holders will have control over the lists.

Even when large markets began to make NFT royalties optional, Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson has come out in support of them. Buyers on almost all major marketplaces can now opt out of paying royalties on NFTs, with the main exception being market leader OpenSea.

Ferguson stated in October that NFT royalties on Immutable are guaranteed and that this is enforced protocol-wide on any marketplace.

“Our vision is an ecosystem where creators have a choice over their royalty model and level of enforceability, and users can vote with their feet when it comes to the projects they feel strike the best balance. Soft-enforced royalties only serve to punish users who are trying to support projects and massively reduce the confidence creators and game studios can have in their revenue streams,” Alex Connolly, co-founder and CTO of Immutable, said in today’s release.

While creators must decide how strictly they want to enforce royalty payments, Immutable’s new tool shifts the burden of enforcement away from marketplaces, which Magic Eden has been advocating for. Previous proposed systems, such as Magic Eden’s own MetaShield product, have been capable of identifying NFTs that have avoided royalty payment, but action has been left to a third party.