Blocky saysNFT marketplaces (OpenSea, Blur) let people mint, list, and trade tokens — and fought over royalties.
Marketplaces are the storefronts: they index tokens, handle listings/bids, and execute trades via contracts. Competition (Blur vs OpenSea) drove a "royalty war" — creator royalties were never truly enforced on-chain, so marketplaces made them optional to win traders, gutting a key creator income stream. It exposed that "enforced royalties" were a social, not protocol, guarantee.
Power-ups you unlock
Index, list, bid, and trade NFTs
Trades execute through marketplace contracts
Royalty war made creator royalties optional
Royalties were social, not protocol-enforced
Double-Spend Dan attacks — common mistakes
Assuming royalties are guaranteed on-chain
Trusting one marketplace’s floor as "the" price
Ignoring marketplace contract/approval risks
Boss battleExplain why creator royalties proved hard to enforce.
Example code
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<body style="background:#06040d;color:#e6e0ff;font-family:monospace;padding:20px"><pre>royalties: paid by the marketplace, not the protocol
competitor makes them optional → race to the bottom
→ "enforced" was really voluntary</pre></body></html>