ERC-2981 royalties explained
Quick answer
ERC-2981 is the NFT royalty standard. A contract exposes royaltyInfo(tokenId, salePrice) returning a receiver and an amount; a marketplace that honours the standard pays that amount to the receiver on each sale.
Royalties are not enforced by the token itself — a transfer is a transfer. ERC-2981 standardises how a contract declares its royalty so that marketplaces can pay it. Whether a marketplace does is up to the marketplace, which is why Elevate's own marketplace enforces it.
Who this is for
Creators setting royalties, and collectors who want to know what a sale pays out.
How ERC-2981 works
The standard defines one read-only function, royaltyInfo(tokenId, salePrice), returning the address that should receive the royalty and the amount in the sale currency. It carries no payment logic; it is a signal that compliant marketplaces read at settlement.
How Elevate handles royalties
- The creator sets the royalty receiver and rate at deployment; the rate is stored in basis points (500 = 5%).
- Elevate's marketplace reads royaltyInfo on every sale and pays the royalty automatically, alongside the marketplace fee, before the seller receives the remainder.
- A configurable cap protects collectors: the contract will not enforce a royalty above the cap agreed at deployment.
- The current receiver and rate are read from the contract and shown on the collection page.
What a sale pays out
| Party | Receives |
|---|---|
| Creator (royalty receiver) | salePrice × royalty rate, up to the cap |
| Marketplace | salePrice × marketplace fee (capped at 10% by contract) |
| Seller | The remainder |
Frequently asked questions
- Can royalties be changed after deployment?
- The receiver and rate can be updated by the contract owner within the cap set at deployment; the cap itself cannot be raised.
- Are royalties paid on transfers between my own wallets?
- No. Royalties apply to marketplace sales, not plain transfers.
Sources
Written and maintained by the Elevate team. Last updated . Corrections: reach the team on the official Discord.
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