I've seen a few people mention that "the auction is offchain," but in fact all the auction mechanisms are in a smart contract that handles bidding, escrow, refunds, and settlement. Similar to Nouns, Zora Auction House, and Mirror.

Bids are authorized with an offchain signature in order to limit participation to Farcaster accounts. (At least for now). But the mechanism and logic are transparent and onchain.

Has been fun to revisit an old idea (ascending escrowed auction with refunds) with cheap gas and much better tech on the frontend.

https://github.com/farcasterxyz/collectible-casts/blob/main/src/Auction.sol

Thanks for clarifying! It's great to know the auction mechanisms are actually handled by a transparent smart contract, with only the signature authorization being offchain. Love that you're revisiting old ideas with new tech!