thenextwave

Auctions are ancient social rituals.

In Rome, they were community spectacles. Soldiers auctioned off spoils of war in public. Emperors used auctions to raise funds.

The Latin word “auctio” means “an increase.” As we all know, a sequence of increases can result in wild spectacles.

In 193 CE, after the assassination of Emperor Pertinax, the elite soldiers of the Praetorian Guard auctioned off the throne to the Roman Empire to the highest bidder.

Didius Julianus, a wealthy senator, won and became emperor. He reigned a few months before getting overthrown and executed.

The auction is still an important civilizational tool today. During California’s gold rush, auctions were daily events with properties and tools changing owners. The San Francisco skyline was built by bidding.

In Silicon Valley years later, auctions allowed Google to raise large sums of cash off their search ads. The entire venture capital industry which provides blood flow to startups relies on informal auctions.

Auctions are not always just rituals of commerce. They can also be rituals of meaning. This is what interests me most for The Next Wave. It opens up new possibilities for experiments with physical artifacts, in-person experiences, and exclusive content.

Don’t let the cuteness and simplicity of the little star let you underestimate the power of this new tool on Farcaster.

Today collecting is functioning mainly as a super-tip. But its past is rooted in ancient ritual. Its future is limited only by our imaginations. What will we do with it here?

Now’s a good time to read up on auction theories. Some keywords as food for thought:

- English Auction
- Dutch Auction
- First-Price Sealed-Bid
- Second-Price Sealed-Bid
- Vickrey Auction
- Private Value
- Common Value
- Winner’s Curse
- Revenue Equivalence Theorem
- Bid Shading
- Truthful Bidding
- Information Asymmetry
- Reserve Price
- Collusion
- Sniping
- Multi-Unit Auction
- Ascending Bids
- Descending Price
- All-Pay Auction
- Proxy Bidding
- Strategic Bidding
- Mechanism Design
- Incentive Compatibility
- Bidding Ring
- Auctioneer’s Dilemma

I’m bidding on you.

I’m bidding on myself.

I’m bidding on creativity.

Farcaster just following an ancient ritual 

Amazing cast by @patriciaxlee.eth

Building a little space at /thenextwave and watching everything on /videolab.

"d/acc"
An ex-banker fell into ethereum rabbithole.
Economics was love until I met web3.

  /f /kp /fbi

Another interesting ancient auction (which may or may not have actually happened) was the Babylonian marriage auction. Herodotus wrote about it, though the practice was obsolete by his time. He said the most attractive women were sold to the highest bidder. These proceeds went toward dowries for the less conventionally attractive women. The auction, if real, essentially facilitated economic redistribution.

Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4436038