Link building is a highly discussed topic but is far from dead.
It would be arrogant to say link building (or even SEO) is the same as it was a couple of years ago, but that doesn’t mean link building is dead and buried.

The importance of building high-quality white hat links has never been higher.
The question remains: “Can link building co-exist with Google Penguin updates?” Spoiler: the answer is yes.

source