Using emoji names

Auctions

Single-emoji names are never sold at a list price. They are released as curated drops through an English auction with a 150 GRAM floor, +5% raises and a one-hour anti-snipe.

There are roughly as many single emoji as there are seats at a very small table. 🚀 alone is not the same kind of asset as 🚀🌙, and pricing it off a schedule would be pretending otherwise.

So singles are never publicly registrable — not at launch, not after a name lapses, not ever. They are released as curated drops, and the market sets the price.

How a drop works

1. The lot opens. We list a single with a starting bid — never below the 150 GRAM floor — and a duration. The duration is set per lot within a hard range of 6 hours to 30 days.
2. The clock does not start yet. A lot with no interest never quietly expires. The countdown begins at the first bid, so every lot gets its full competitive window no matter when someone shows up. An untouched lot can be freed after 30 days.
3. Bidding. Each bid must beat the standing high by at least 5%. Your GRAM is held in escrow by the registrar; when you are outbid it is refunded in full — no fee deducted — with an opcode attached so your wallet can label the incoming payment instead of showing an unexplained transfer.
4. Anti-snipe. Any bid guarantees at least one more hour of bidding. Sniping in the last block does not work — it just extends the auction.
5. Settlement is permissionless. Once the clock runs out, anyone can settle. The winner does not depend on us being awake. Settlement is atomic: the name record, the NFT mint and the resolver sync all happen in one message.

Escrow safety

Live bids are other people's money and the contract treats them that way.

• freeBalance() reports the registrar's balance minus every live bid. It is what operations can actually withdraw.
• A withdrawal that would dip into escrow is refused, not merely discouraged.
• The escrow invariant is a tested property, not an intention — a stress run of escalating bids across multiple bidders keeps balance − escrowed above the storage floor throughout.

After a single is won

The winner gets the name on the term the lot specified, with the same rights as any other holder: they can transfer it, sell it on a secondary marketplace, set records, and renew it.

Two things are specific to singles:

• The renewal rate is 50 GRAM/year — the highest tier, and immutable like every other renewal price.
• Only singles are eligible for the permanent upgrade. See Renewals.

If a single lapses past its grace period it does not rejoin the public pool. It returns to the locked pool and can only be re-released through another auction.

Bidding errors