EXP-001 · CANDLEWICK
An auction that only hears the last twelve seconds
ARCHIVED PUBLIC
An open ascending auction that discards every bid except the ones landing in the final slot before the deadline. The clearing rule was published in full on day one. It did not help anybody.
Candle auctions end at a moment nobody knows in advance. We inverted that. The end time was public and fixed, and only the last slot counted. We expected a sniping arms race and got one, but not the one we had written down. Within three weeks the bidders stopped competing on speed and started competing on inclusion, which made it a block-space problem instead of a bidding problem. The contract is still deployed. It is not accepting anything, because there is nothing left to accept.
RECORD
- Chains
- ethereum, base
- Protocols
- safe
- Assets
- None
- Opened
- 2025-03-14
- Located
- PROTOCOL LABORATORY
READINGS
BIDS SUBMITTED11,207
BIDS THAT COUNTED4
LAST-SLOT COLLISIONS61
GAS SPENT ON LOSING██████ GWEI
RESEARCH LOG
- deployed. published the rule set in the same commit. no advantage retained.
- first sniper. then nine. the mempool got loud on a schedule.
- they stopped racing each other and started paying for placement. that was the finding.
- round four settled with one bid. the other 2,900 arrived one slot early, together.
- archived. the interesting part was never the auction.