The Nouns experiment launched on Ethereum on August 8, 2021, and was founded by an anonymous group of 10 contributors known as the Nounders.
Each Noun is a 32x32 pixel character assembled from a fixed library of traits β 2 backgrounds, 31 bodies, 145 accessories, 258 heads, and 24 pairs of glasses β generated pseudo-randomly from the Ethereum block hash at the moment of settlement. There are no "if" statements governing scarcity; every Noun is, by design, equally rare.
The auction mechanic is unique in this experiment: One Noun is trustlessly auctioned every 24 hours, and the settlement of one auction (or the reserve not being met) automatically kicks off the next β a perpetual cycle that has run uninterrupted since launch. Currently, Nouns whose reserve bid is not met get transferred to the DAO treasury at the end of the 24-hour auction period. 100% of auction proceeds flow into the Nouns DAO treasury, which is controlled exclusively by Noun holders through on-chain governance using a fork of Compound. One Noun is one vote.
The artwork itself lives entirely on Ethereum. Noun parts are compressed using a custom run-length encoding and assembled into a single base64-encoded SVG directly on-chain β no IPFS, no external servers, no off-chain dependencies. Every image is reproducible from the contract alone, which is what allows Nouns' artwork to sit in the public domain and travel freely across the open web.
Nouns DAO has used its treasury to fund a sprawling ecosystem of public goods and creative work β from independent films and Rose Parade floats to schools, coffee shops, on-chain infrastructure like Prop House, and the daily auction itself. The collection has no end date and no supply cap. One Noun, every day, forever.
The inclusion of Noun 1867 in our Flagship Collection honors one of the most ambitious experiments in onchain culture β an ongoing attempt to wire a daily auction, a public-domain artwork, and a community-governed treasury into a single system, and let it run, every day, forever.
Welcome home, 1867 π