My favorite NFT project is Nouns. One reason why is its innovative “one Noun, every day, forever” auction system.
Instead of dropping a 10k PFP collection at once, the Nouns protocol generates a new character every day and auctions it off. This slow release drip funnels attention to the DAO's latest PFP and creates an ongoing stream of ETH funding via NFT sales.
I love seeing people experiment with this general model, because the reality is it's readily adaptable and a frontier way to support new independent experiments.
That's why one newer project on Base recently caught my eye, qrcoin.fun, as it's an interesting new riff on daily onchain auctions.
Spearheaded by JAKE—an artist, writer, and the creator of Base Colors—the qrcoin platform centers around a single, permanent QR code. Each day the highest bidder chooses where the QR resolves for the next 24 hours, then the cycle repeats.
By using one QR, the distribution itself here is shared infra. Everyone who pastes the code anywhere, online or IRL, boosts future winners.
This new onchain attention machine has been running for nearly 3 months already and has had more than 80 winners so far.
The latest winner, the vibecoding platform Ohara, used the QR code to plug its new app coin launcher system. Another recent example is Noice, which highlighted its Farcaster profile and 5x'd its followers in one day. Tokens connected with auction winners have pumped, too.
it's hard to determine causality, but we've been seeing this consistently since we started driving serious attention.
Joining in is simple. You can sign up with an email on qrcoin and place bids via credit card or Apple Pay, or you can connect your wallet and place USDC bids on Base. If you're outbid, your payment automatically gets refunded to you.
Three weeks ago, winning bids were going for around $50, while the past three auctions have all gone for +$1,400 as interest around the platform has grown. Part of this growth has been spurred by qrcoin's Farcaster Mini App, which has over 23,000 downloads and counting.
It's definitely a great place to reach active onchain users, as evidenced by Farcaster Pro selling +10k premium memberships in just a matter of hours yesterday. This is a scene of power users, and qrcoin's been making the most of that with compounding results so far.
Plus, Farcaster's a great testing ground for iterating in general. For instance, qrcoin is currently experimenting with sending tips using its native $QR token to anyone who views the latest auction winner within its Farcaster Mini App, all programmatically.
My bottom line, then, is this is a cool up-and-coming project. And as far as the future goes, qrcoin plans to get its QR code into as many digital and physical spaces as possible and to eventually use a cut of auction revenues to conduct $QR buybacks.
All that said, I think what's most interesting to me here is the win-win reflexivity that's possible. Auction winners drive attention to qrcoin, and qrcoin drives attention to auction winners, 'round and 'round.
If JAKE can keep this flywheel spinning—and keep layering in clever $QR incentives—this QR code experiment could become the Base ecosystem's biggest billboard. Keep it on your radar accordingly.
Unlock the power of Unichain – a fast, decentralized Ethereum Layer 2 network built to be the home for DeFi and cross-chain liquidity. To bridge tokens to Unichain and start swapping today, get started with Uniswap Labs' web app or mobile wallet.
Not financial or tax advice. Bankless content is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This newsletter is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time we may add links in this newsletter to products we use. We may receive a commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless team holds crypto assets.
