Lately, there’s been more arguing in secondary markets about whether they should pay royalties. Put simply, creators want a steady cash flow, while traders want less friction. Having seen bridge congestion and accidents, my first reaction isn’t to take sides—it’s: if the rules rely on “self-discipline,” they’ll most likely be turned into nothing by the group that’s best at exploiting loopholes. If you ban it, creators will go to other chains/markets; if you loosen it, the works become nothing more than trading chips, and the community disperses quickly.

Not to mention that, right now, new L1/L2s are touting incentives to pull up TVL, while longtime users complain about “dig-and-sell”—liquidity migrates like birds. Today they’re talking about ideals on one chain; tomorrow they move elsewhere to cash out. The royalty dispute is really the same thing: everyone wants a long-term narrative, but everyone is operating based on short-term optimization… which is pretty realistic. In any case, when I look at projects now, I’d rather examine contract permissions, how the market executes, and whether they truly treat creators as partners—not just tools for acquiring new users—than be swayed by how nice the royalty terms sound.