NFT Auctions coming to Phantasma!

Published in

PhantasticPhantasma

5 min readFeb 27, 2021

Dear artists, collectors and all other fellow SOULdiers out there,

Since GhostMarket launched their self minting service uMint, the fine gentlemen at GhostDevs have been working with our core chain developers to implement native NFT auctions at the core of Phantasma’s blockchain. Final tests have now passed, all lights are green — we are live!

A world of auctions at your fingertips!

Auctions introduce an exciting aspect to GhostMarket as there is just not the normal ‘highest bidder’ type of auctions available to drive excitement and price discovery for the creations being offered up for sale. There are also multiple other auction types that each has its benefits and unique mechanics, allowing an artist or game studio to choose the auction type that suits their desired NFT dynamics.

Classical auctions

Classical auctions are the traditional auctions. They come with a defined starting price, starting date and an end date — and the highest bidder wins the auction. Configured by the seller, an extension period can be defined to automatically extend the auction by 5 or 10 minutes if a last minute bid is submitted just before closing time. The classical auctions can be scheduled to start at a set time, and such scheduled auctions can be cancelled up until their scheduled starting time. The duration for a classical auction is a maximum of 30 days. For highly anticipated auctions where a bidding frenzy is expected, classical auctions can be an excellent fit as it will always allow the item on sale to reach the highest price buyers are willing to pay.

Set your parameters — get ready — launch!

Reserve auctions

Reserve Auctions do not have a start or end time defined by the seller. Instead, the seller only defines a minimum starting price. If a bid is submitted that exceeds this minimum price, it automatically triggers the start of a 24 hour auction period. After that a reserve auction acts like a classical auction, where the highest bidder will win the auction. Also for reserve auctions, an automatic extension can be defined in the case of last minute bids, and reserve auctions can be cancelled before they receive their first qualifying bid. One aspect of the reserve auction is protection of the owner of the auctioned item against unfavourable outcomes. While allowing bidding to start low and gain momentum, an item cannot be sold below the reserve price.

Dutch auctions

An engaging auction concept is the dutch auction. In dutch auctions the owner of the auctioned item gets to define both a start and end date, a starting price and an ending price. The auction itself becomes a game of ‘chicken’ between interested buyers, where the auctioned item’s price is gradually reduced, but where the first person to hit the buy button gets it. The first bid wins the auction, and the question is how long a prospective buyer dares to wait, risking that another interested party snatches the item before his or her eyes. Dutch auctions can also be scheduled to start at a later date, can be cancelled before the starting date and have a maximum duration of 30 days.

How long will your fans dare to wait before securing their purchase?

Fixed auctions / plain listing

Of course GhostMarket will cater to everyone who prefer the good old normal listings, with a fixed price, predictable for both buyers and sellers. The plain listings are getting some upgrades though, where they previously just had a duration and a price. They can now be set to start at a later date (scheduled drop), and the listing duration can now be set to up to 365 days instead of the previous 30 — or to simply never expire! Like before, a plain listing can be cancelled at any time.

Keeping it clean and user friendly

To save all our users the hassle of cancelling expired items to relist them or simply store them in their wallets, we have now automated the cancellation of expired listings. This means that as soon as an auction or plain listing ends, GhostMarket will automatically end the listing, and the NFT will be returned to your wallet. No longer can you risk having 10,000 expired listings to go through and manually cancel, GhostMarket will claim the NFT for you and trigger a return to your wallet in the very next block after the listing expires!

Get ready for the GHOST Genesis!

Multiple artists have been silently preparing some of their best work in anticipation of auctions launching — one of these is the brand new GhostMarket artist ILL Bill, expect to see his first NFT drop shortly after auctions go live!

ILL Bill is coming to GhostMarket — are you?

The very first auction going live however, will be for one of the coveted GHOST Genesis NFTs! These visual wonders come with an amazing value proposition: Trade and enjoy GhostMarket for life — with zero trading fees! With Phantasma’s pure chain fees being in the low sub cent range, this means that you can basically trade on GhostMarket for free for all eternity!

Will you have a chance to secure one of the highly anticipated GHOST Genesis NFTs?

We are proud to be able to share this launch with all of you, and trust that you will enjoy using all the new features as much as we have enjoyed building them!

Going once, going twice — sold!

Your Phantasma Team