What is Nouns?
Nouns is a generative non-fungible token project on the Ethereum blockchain. Nouns are 32x32 pixel characters based on people, places, and things. One noun is generated every day. Here are some examples of nouns:
Noun Auctions
One noun is auctioned every 24 hours, forever. One interface for participating in noun auctions is nouns.wtf, which is a website built and maintained by the project founders ('Nounders'):
In the auction above, Noun 8, which is the 9th Noun (Noun IDs start at 0) is for sale. The current bid is 88.88 ETH (Ether), and there are 2 hours, 21 minutes, and 50 seconds remaining in the auction. If this auction ends with no further bids, 88.88 ETH from xaix.eth ($286,824 USD as of this writing) will be automatically and trustlessly sent to the Nouns DAO Treasury and xaix.eth will win this Noun, which means that the ERC-721 token will be transferred to their address.
You can see all the Noun ERC-721 tokens on Opensea (link above)
Noun Auction Settlement
Because of the way Ethereum works, Noun auctions must be settled after they are completed. The auction settlement transaction does three things: 1. it sends the current NOUN ERC-721 token to the winner of the auction, 2. generates the next Noun, and 3. begins the next 24 hour Noun auction.