These past two days, I’ve been watching people argue about secondary royalties again. Put simply, everyone wants “free trading,” but nobody wants creators to go hungry. I used to be pretty supportive of royalties. I thought they’re the bottom line of the creator economy. I believed that if royalties weren’t charged, people would be more active—only to find that when it actually came to “zero royalties,” the floor did get busier. But the project teams and artists simply had no motivation to keep updating, and even the community vibe gradually dissipated… it’s kind of awkward.

What’s even more surreal is that in the group, people are fighting over whether royalties should be mandatory, while at the same time they’re arguing about whether privacy coins/mixing coins really count as “original sin,” splitting everyone right down the middle over compliance boundaries. Anyway, these days I just treat myself as a FOMO warrior who still needs to stick to some discipline: before you rush in, first make sure you understand how the project will keep going afterward—otherwise, once you’ve minted, you’ll blank out and all that’s left is memes/emojis.