Erick Calderon, the co-founder of Art Blocks, tried to turn down the heat on the battle around non-fungible token (NFT) creator royalties at CoinDesk’s Consensus Festival. He made his own opinion on the matter clear, however: according to Calderon, royalties “let the creator keep creating.”

Art Blocks is an NFT collection and organization focused on generative art – artwork that is generated autonomously according to rules set by its creator. (In the context of NFTs, the term usually refers to art that’s generated by computer programs that are made to live on blockchains). Recently, Art Blocks debuted an NFT marketplace that bakes in creator royalties as a default feature.

Royalties – money paid out to an NFT’s creator each time they are sold – have long been a matter of debate among creators and collectors. Some artists view built-in royalties as a key value-add – if not the key value-add – of NFTs, and they’ve voiced dismay when NFT marketplaces and collectors have taken steps that erode the practice of rewarding royalties as a norm.

(by Jesse Hamilton)