Art Blocks, a leading generative art platform, has announced the launch of its new secondary NFT marketplace, which aims to reward collectors for paying royalties. This move comes as many top marketplaces have made creator royalties optional as a way of attracting users to their platforms.

The Art Blocks marketplace is integrated with the Art Blocks website, enabling collectors to browse different NFTs across all existing Art Blocks collections, whether they are natively listed there or aggregated from other marketplaces like OpenSea. The marketplace has several unique features that set it apart from other platforms. Firstly, it will not charge any fees for secondary trades that take place. Secondly, creator-imposed royalties will be fully honored, providing a stable source of revenue for artists whenever their art pieces are sold on the secondary market. These royalties typically range between 5% and 10%, but most top marketplaces have dropped them to a bare minimum of 0.5% to reduce NFT prices.

The Art Blocks team is a staunch supporter of creator royalties, with founder and CEO Erick Calderon being an artist himself and creating a valuable collection on the platform called “Chromie Squiggle.” The launch of the marketplace is part of the team’s effort to support artists and their practices, allowing them to quit other jobs and solely focus on their craft.

While it is not clear how the Art Blocks marketplace plans to incentivize collectors to pay the full royalties set by artists, Caldron notes that “the creator economy is empowering the creator with control over their own creation.” Over time, a formula may be developed to provide a meaningful reward to collectors.

Aside from incentivizing royalty payments, the Art Blocks marketplace aims to provide a secure platform that is free of scam projects and knockoffs, ensuring that buyers and sellers can trade with confidence.