FIFA World Cup 2022

A new NFT marketplace is giving a hard pass to optional royalties, bucking the trend, and NFTs are getting a new home on Ripple’s XRPL.

NFT marketplace says no to optional royalties

While nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces such as Ethereum (ETH)-based X2Y2, LooksRare, and Solana (SOL)-based Magic Eden have made the switch over to “optional” creator royalties, a newly launched marketplace is taking a hard stand against it.

Find Satoshi Lab, the company behind the popular move-to-earn app StepN has launched its new NFT marketplace named MOOAR on Nov. 1, notably featuring “no optional royalties.”

Instead, its NFT royalty policy will be set to a default of 2% but allows creators to set royalties between 0.5% to 10%. There is no option for 0% royalties, nor can it be set by the user.

“With the raging debate going on surrounding the paying of royalties, we are aware that many users have been vocal in opposing the enforcement of such royalties,” said the MOOAR team in a Medium post.

“Fully empathizing with the sentiment, we strongly believe this ‘cancel culture’ has forced marketplaces into a corner to the point that prominent marketplaces have adopted optional royalties,” it added.

Launch Day! Get #MOOAR!

Find Satoshi Lab (@FSLWeb3), the company behind STEPN, is thrilled to announce the launch of MOOAR NFT marketplace & launchpad.

This milestone is one of many on our roadmap to become a one-stop platform for the Web3 Community. ⬇ [1/10] pic.twitter.com/IfSSo2RWaS

— MOOAR | Season #1 (@mooarofficial) November 1, 2022

On Aug. 27, Ethereum-based NFT marketplace X2Y2 announced it would be introducing an option that allows buyers to set the royalty fee when buying an NFT.

With the new update, buyers on the platform will be given the liberty of setting the amount of royalties they want to contribute to an NFT project. This means that some creators may not receive royalties when their artworks are sold.

The controversial move was followed by the Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden on Oct. 15, which announced it would also be moving to an optional royalty model after “difficult reflection and discussion with many creators.”

Less than two weeks later on Oct. 27, NFT marketplace LooksRare became the latest to succumb to pressure from buyers, announcing it was doing away with enforcing creator royalties, allowing buyers to choose to pay royalties on an opt-in basis.

Visa gets in on World Cup NFT action

Credit card giant Visa has become the latest major company set to cash in on FIFA World Cup-related nonfungible tokens (NFTs) — unveiling a charity auction for five NFTs ahead of the upcoming tournament in Qatar. 

The auction is in partnership with crypto exchange Crypto.com, with all auction proceeds going to Street Child United, a charitable organization promoting the rights of impoverished children.

Each NFT features digital art inspired by icon goals from five famed soccer players including Jared Borgetti, Tim Cahill, Carli Lloyd, Michael Owen, and Maxi Rodriguez, and is part of the “Visa Masters of Movement.”

The credit card company has been a long supporter of NFTs and its ability to provide a “promising medium for fan engagement.”

In a report released on Aug. 23, 2021, Visa said that “NFTs appeal to collectors, fans, teams, leagues, and talent.”

In particular, NFTs can become primary sources of fan engagement, customer relationship management, and newer revenue streams, it said.

Visa’s announcement also comes on the same day that Crypto.com announced it will now be able to self-issue its own Crypto.com Visa card in Singapore, after becoming a Visa Associate Program Member in the city-state.

The Crypto.com Visa card will allow the exchange’s users in Singapore to use it for everyday purchases and earn rewards in CRO coins.

Visa is the Official Payment Technology Partner of FIFA. Other notable sponsors include Crypto.com which became an official sponsor in March, and blockchain network Algorand, which inked a partnership in May as FIFA’s official blockchain platform.

Ripple's new stomping ground for NFTs

As of Oct. 31, Ripple’s XRPL blockchain has officially become a new home for NFTs.

RippleX developers have been working on the project since the XLS-20 proposal was filed on May 25, 2021, which proposed the goal to bring NFTs to the XRP Ledger.

At the time, the team described the proposal as one that would introduce extensions to the XRP Ledger that would support a “native non-fungible token type, along with operations to enumerate, purchase, sell and hold such tokens.”

Ripple CTO David Schwartz told his 395,600 Twitter followers on Oct. 31 that the XLS-20 standard has now been enabled on the XRP Ledger Mainnet after a vote approved the roll-out of the technology.

Schwartz noted that “this presents a key milestone for developers and creators to tokenize any asset and build innovative Web3 projects with utility.”

Thanks to the collective effort of the #XRPL community and @RippleXDev engineers, XLS-20 is now enabled on the XRP Ledger Mainnet and a few NFTs have already been minted. (1/4)

— David "JoelKatz" Schwartz (@JoelKatz) October 31, 2022

In an accompanying Nov. 1 blog post, Schwartz said the benefits of launching NFTs on the XRP Ledger include much lower costs for minting, trading and otherwise transferring NFTs compared to “leading layer-1 blockchain solutions.”

He also said their “no-smart contracts” approach will make NFTs on the XRPL less vulnerable to hacks, while NFTs will include “automatic royalties” which essentially allow creators to be given a share of revenue whenever an NFT is bought or sold.

Scammers impersonate indie game, adding NFT twist

The indie developer behind farming sim game Coral Island has taken to Twitter to warn its followers of a scammer impersonating them on the internet and purporting to be involved in “GameFi” and NFTs.

The developer Stairway Games pointed to the doppelganger account on Twitter on Oct. 31, clarifying that Coral Island “is not an NFT game” and the page has no affiliation with Coral Island.

Related: Steph Curry files trademark for the Curryverse, where players earn NFTs

The fake Coral Island Twitter page in question describes itself as “Re-imagined farm sim game goes GameFi. Enter the farmverse!” and links to a similar Instagram page, as well as a fully-decked-out website using assets, lifted directly from the developers.

The website includes sections such as “Roadmap” and “Tokenomics,” with claims that it would launch staking, airdrops, character NFTs, and a “token earning system” in the future.

Hey folks, this is not us. @coralislandgame is the only Coral Island game twitter page. We are not an NFT game and the page below has no affiliation to Coral Island. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/Aei1650McT

— Stairway Games (@stairwaygames) October 31, 2022

Coral Island is a farming simulator game currently in early access, it’s said to be a mix of “Harvest Moon, Story of Seasons, Stardew Valley and a tiny bit of Animal Crossing,” according to one user review on gaming platform Steam.

More Nifty News

The nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace for American video game retailer GameStop has officially gone live on Ethereum layer-2 blockchain ImmutableX, all part of the latest Web3 push from the gaming retailer.

There’s been pushback from Silicon Valley CEOs about the current iterations of the Metaverse. Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer called it a “poorly built video game,” while Snap CEO Evan Spiegel hinted that the current iterations of the concept are very basic, and he won’t feel like spending time inside it after a long day of work.