[dete]

When we started the project, we expected to use a standard, eBay-style, rising auction with successive bids, but that resulted in way too many on-chain transactions. So, we had to find a kind of auction that required just two committed transactions: Starting the auction, and claiming the winning bid. The answer was a descending clock auction, where you set some start price and gradually drop the price over time until someone chooses to pay. (It's formally equivalent to a first-price, sealed bid auction, if you're an auction theory aficionado!)

The common name for a descending clock auctions? "Dutch Auction" or "Tulip Auction". The irony is not lost on us...