Auctions
A fixed bounty pays one number. An auction bounty lets the market decide how much of your maximum a hunter actually earns. You always fund the maximum; whatever the winner does not earn comes back to you when they are paid.
Two kinds
| Dutch (the reward climbs) | English (hunters bid it down) | |
|---|---|---|
| You set | The maximum reward, an opening reward below it, and how many hours the climb takes. | The maximum reward, how many hours bidding stays open, and the minimum undercut per bid (default 5%). |
| While it runs | From the moment the escrow is funded the reward rises linearly from the opening amount to the maximum. Anyone can watch it climb. | Hunters bid the reward they would do it for. Each bid must undercut the lowest one by at least the step. A hunter may lower their own bid. Nobody can accept the dare while bidding is open. |
| The lock | The first hunter to accept locks the reward at that instant’s value and gets the bounty alone. Nobody else can accept or submit. | When the window closes the lowest bid wins (earliest bid on a tie). The winner’s acceptance is created for them and the reward is locked at their bid. |
| If the holder fails | Their time runs out or their proof is rejected: the lock is released, the clock never stopped, so the reward is wherever the curve says. The next hunter can take it. | Same release. The bounty reopens to everyone at the full maximum; the auction does not restart. |
| No takers | The reward sits at the maximum until the dare expires, then the escrow is refunded like any other dare. | No bids when the window closes: the bounty simply opens to everyone at the full maximum. |
What you fund and what comes back
The escrow always receives the maximum. That is what makes the promise credible: a hunter locking 7 of 10 knows the 10 is already there. At payout the escrow pays the winner the locked reward minus the platform fee, the fee on the locked reward only, and returns the rest to you.
Dutch: max 10 USDG, opening 4, climb 1 hour, accepted after 30 minutes locked reward 7 USDG fee 5% 0.35 USDG -> fee wallet winner 6.65 USDG surplus 3 USDG -> you English: max 2 NVDA, lowest bid 1.3 fee 5% 0.065 NVDA winner 1.235 NVDA surplus 0.7 NVDA -> you
The surplus goes to the same place a refund would: the refund address you gave, then your linked wallet, then the wallet that funded the escrow. It is sent right after the winner is paid; if that transfer fails, the scheduler retries it on later ticks and the admin page shows the error. See expiry and refunds for the destination rules.
An ETH auction needs a refund address at creation like any ETH dare, and for the same reason: the surplus has to go somewhere the chain can prove is yours. For ETH the escrow also pays gas out of the surplus, so a very small surplus may be consumed by it.
Rules and limits
| Rule | Dutch | English |
|---|---|---|
| Opening reward | Greater than zero, below the maximum. | - |
| Window | At most the dare duration. Reaching the maximum exactly at expiry is fine. | Must close at least 1 hour before the dare expires, so the winner has time to deliver. |
| Bid step | - | An integer number of basis points, 1 to 5000. A bid may not exceed the lowest bid times (1 - step). |
| Who | Not the creator. | Not the creator. One current bid per hunter; 60 bids per hour. |
| Minimum | The $10 minimum applies to the maximum you fund, not the opening reward. | Same. |
| Timer | The dare duration counts from funding, exactly like a fixed dare. The climb starts at the same moment. | Bidding starts at funding. After the close the winner has until the dare expires. |
Extensions work as before, on the dare timer. They never extend an auction window.
For hunters
- 1Dutch: wait or grabThe card shows the reward right now and where it is going. Accept when the number is worth it to you; from that moment the bounty is yours and the number is fixed. Someone else may grab it first.
- 2English: bid what you would takeOpen the bounty, enter your bid, place it. You can lower it later. When the countdown ends and your bid is the lowest, the dare is yours automatically and appears as accepted in your list.
- 3Deliver like any dareSubmit proof before the dare expires. Approval pays you the locked reward minus the fee. Rejection, or running out of time, releases the bounty to others.
API
Creation takes the usual fields plus auctionType (dutch or english), auctionHours, and either auctionStartAmount (Dutch) or auctionMinStepBps (English, optional). Every dare object then carries an auction block; bids go to POST /api/dares/[id]/bid and are listed by GET /api/dares/[id]/bids. Details on the HTTP API page.