Bidding vs. Battle Bidding
Auctions and auction mechanics have been around for a long time, possibly dating back over two thousand years. The highest bidder always wins, giving those with the deepest pockets the most desired items, while the rest are left with the scraps.
Since the beginning, auctions have come in several forms, such as silent auctions, candle auctions, online auctions, charity auctions, reverse auctions, Dutch auctions, and penny auctions, among others. Each of these has its own distinct set of pros and cons.
Typically, artwork auctions involve a closed community of creators, critics, gallerists, marketers, and wealthy bidders. As a result, auction prices tend to be highly subjective, with the most affluent participants usually emerging as the winners.
The Arena platform offers a unique game mechanic that helps level the playing field for creators and bidders. It is an invite-only membership platform that utilizes a native token known as the BUN (Bid Unit). There is a limited supply of 500 million of these tokens, which enhances the users experience through increased engagement and entertainment while preserving the exclusivity of the membership. It also allows those with fewer BUNs to compete against more significant balances.
Members enter a time-limited auction by spending five BUNs (this does not apply to resale auctions, where a member has won an NFT and is re-listing it for auction). This gives them the right to bid for NFTs in the “Battle Bidding Arena.” Battle Bidding is a pay-to-bid auction where members compete for an NFT by bidding one BUN at a time. Neither participants nor bidders can outbid themselves, and each bid used is debited from their account regardless of the outcome. If requests are submitted in the last 15 seconds, the timer resets to 15 seconds. The person who bids last when the counter reaches zero wins the NFT.
The amount to join an auction doubles when six hours are left on the original timer and continues to double every 6 hours. Members can no longer enter the auction after 78 hours of the fee doubling. This is because they can only have a maximum of 50,000 BUNs in their account at any one time; after 78 hours, the cost to join the auction is 40,960 BUNs, which exceeds the limit.
In the larger context, BUNs work harmoniously with the Oven to regulate and govern member behavior within the NeoWorlder ecosystem. For further exploration of the synergistic game mechanics of the BUNs and the Oven, refer to this post.
