These days, I’ve been seeing the secondary market arguing over whether to pay royalties, honestly everyone just wants to save that little bit of friction cost, but creators aren’t just sitting around waiting for handouts either. I used to be quite firm that “royalties are just rules,” but now I’m a bit colder: if rules can only be maintained through moral coercion, they will eventually be bypassed, especially when the market cools down, who’s willing to pay an extra layer?

Thinking back to the collapse of blockchain games, with inflation + studios + coin price spiral, in the end it was also “rules written beautifully,” but once incentives go off course, everything deforms. The royalty dispute is pretty similar: if incentives aren’t aligned, everyone will vote with their feet.

I personally now lean more towards practicality; recently, I set up reminders/limits for a few NFT listings, and my mindset has clearly stabilized — no more rushing to chase or fearing missing out, I only act when the price hits my target. The creator economy is the same, don’t expect a simple “should” to sustain people, you need to design cash flow paths that look more like real business. That’s all for now.