Derivatives Update

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As an NFT marketplace, we are often caught in the middle of people with vastly different opinions. Such was the case this week with derivative projects–some vehemently dislike them, but we learned today that many don’t share the same view. Earlier this week, we created a derivative badge and took derivatives off the home page. We understand that our actions had the effect of penalizing all derivative projects and their communities and creating confusion on what exactly is / isn’t a derivative. Over the last few days, we’ve been developing a better approach that we hope most users can accept as fair.

In this blog post, we will share:

  • How derivatives are defined for the purposes of the derivative badge, and
  • Our new homepage update

Defining A Derivative

We heard that people were confused as to how we’re defining derivative collections which led to folks believing we were giving certain projects preferential treatment. Ultimately, what is and is not a derivative is subjective.

Based on discussions with several NFT project owners and community members, to the best of our knowledge, we came to the conclusion that an underlying feature of a derivative collection is when the base character/image is the same as the NFT collection it is derived from. When a collection uses the same base character/image (e.g. the face structure of a punk), it is a derivative if that base character/image is then modified via:

  • Resized
  • Translated (flipped, rotated)
  • Pixelated (i.e in a different art style)
  • Modified with new traits (e.g additional hats, eyewear, etc)
  • Color change

Note: This list is non-extensive 

We do not consider the following to be a derivative when considered in isolation: 

  • Where a collection has a similar name
  • Where it includes inanimate objects/non-live things (e.g., certain metaverse projects have access cards. We won’t be labeling these derivatives)

There are 2 ways a collection can get a derivative badge:

  1. A NFT collection creator self-nominates their collection with links to the original art that the collection is derived from.
  2. Multiple flags via the community

Homepage Update

Our decision to exclude derivative collections from the Magic Eden homepage was heavy handed. Our popular collections are based on volume and it is only fair that if a derivative NFT collection has high volume, it should be on there in its rightful place.

Derivative collections will be back on the Magic Eden homepage, but with some slight changes:

  • We will be adding a toggle feature on popular collections based on timeframe
  • Our default toggle is set to 7 days
  • Derivative NFT collections will have a small derivative tag on the image displayed on the homepage. This will serve to inform users to help ensure that newer or less aware users are not mistaking them for the original

We took these measures following community feedback and ideas. We would like to thank everyone who contributed and we hope that these are moves in the right direction. 

Our mission coming into the Solana NFT space is and was to be the NFT marketplace for Solana. Our community-first value has not changed and we will continue to be transparent moving forward. We are not and do not want to be centralized arbiters. We will be more communicative with our community and better Magic Eden together.