End of Uniswap staking program
05/10/2021What makes Auctionity different from other NFT auction houses?
Auctionity is a live auction house dedicated to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It allows you to sell your NFTs on the platform in a secure way thanks to blockchain technology.
Auctions on Auctionity are eBay-style blockchain auctions. On most other platforms you will only see descending/Dutch auctions where the price goes down until someone decides to buy the item. With ascending auctions however, prices are rising and allow several people to participate simultaneously, which gives more value to items for sale and makes the bidding experience more exciting.
So, how did we make ascending blockchain auctions possible you ask? Through our dedicated Auctionity sidechain.
Auctionity’s dedicated sidechain
Ebay-style auctions involve several participants and multiple, fast-paced interactions. This would be impossible to implement on the Ethereum blockchain as fees and validations times would be much too high and long to preserve the fast pace and fun of an actual ascending auction. This cannot happen on a standard blockchain.
By creating our own Auctionity sidechain, we were able to tremendously reduced transaction times and completely erase transaction costs during the bidding process, thus recreating a familiar bidding experience for users.
Of course, the Auctionity Network communicates with the part of Auctionity operating on the Ethereum blockchain in order to implement payment and delivery guarantee.
In the end, it allows users to have a familiar bidding experience while still enjoying the benefits of decentralization at each end of the sale.
About payment guarantee
When you put your NFT up for bids on Auctionity, you don’t have to worry about people not actually paying at the end of an auction and leaving you empty-handed.
Before the auction, the seller deposit their NFT for sale onto the Auctionity sidechain and the bidders deposit an amount of $ETH to prove they have the funds to bid. Transaction fees apply for this first transfer.
Auctionity has implemented payment guarantee which means that buyers cannot bid on an item if they do not already have sufficient funds deposited on the Auctionity network as proof that they do indeed have the funds.
No funds – no bids – no surprises for the seller. So if you sell you NFT on Auctionity, you will be certain to get payment in exchange.
More perks of using Auctionity to sell NFTs : sponsoring and auctioneers
Another advantage of selling NFTs on Auctionity is that you may choose to allow sponsors and auctioneers on the item you wish to sell. In concrete terms, this means you may define the percentage of the final sale price you want to distribute to sponsors and auctioneers for promoting your NFT, then let the magic happen.
Anyone can become an auctioneer on the platform and make the bids go wild. Every auction become an exciting moment and a livestream opportunity.
Users promoting your NFT for sale will contribute to raising its value and bringing more participants to auctions, which is obviously a win for you.
About delivery guarantee
On the other hand, anyone can participate in auctions and buy NFTs on the Auctionity platform. All you need is a wallet (such as Metamask) and some $ETH.
The bidding process happens entirely on the Auctionity sidechain with no transaction fees and instant bids
In order to implement payment guarantee for sellers, users have to first deposit some $ETH onto the Auctionity network as proof that they have sufficient funds to place a bid. You may withdraw this deposit at anytime (keeping in mind transaction fees).
Just like sellers enjoy payment guarantee, buyers benefit from delivery guarantee. No risk of the seller running away with your money and not sending you the NFT, no risk of the NFT suddenly « disappearing » once the sale is completed.
Indeed, sellers have to deposit their NFT onto the Auctionity Network before the auction as proof that they actually own the NFT.
If the auction has no participants, he gets his NFT returned to him but if someone buys the NFT, the ownership and the NFT will be transferred to the winning bidder who will be able to claim it through a voucher system. No surprises.
When the auction is closed, the seller gets their payment from the bidder’s deposit on the sidechain and the bidder gets the NFT deposited on the sidechain by the seller before the auction. Transaction fees applies for this step since in happens on the Ethereum blockchain.
What’s next?
So, all in all, using a dedicated Auctionity sidechain has many advantages and is central to making blockchain auctions faster, safer and more reliable for both sellers and buyers.
And it not just a gimmick. A lot of research went into the development of the Auctionity sidechain and the creation of a secure auction process. So much so that we published a scientific paper validating the research behind our technology.
Our aim is now to keep advancing in this direction and build on what we have already achieved. We wanted to provide a platform where anyone can safely buy and sell NFTs while allowing for fast and secure transactions throughout the bidding process and we did.
Now we want to improve user experience even further while preserving all the benefits of blockchain, making Auctionity the go-to platform for NFT auctions.
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