What is Nouns?

Nouns are an experimental, boundless form of art. The latest pixel avatars appear every 24 hours. The developers promise to keep it running forever. Why do humanoids of different shapes and colors entice investors - and how do they differ from other popular NFT pixel avatars like Cryptopunks or Moonbirds? 

The Nouns belong to the category of randomly generated NFTs based on Ethereum block hashes. As opposed to most digital artifacts, these humanoids are stored directly on the blockchain without IPFS. All of the character elements are compressed using the RLE algorithm, ensuring loss prevention.

Each NFT collection is of equal rarity. Under the developers' intent, there is simply no way to divide a collection into several categories on a rarity basis. Elements used to generate humanoids include:

Fancy making your own Nouns? Well, there's a space with the cute name "Playground" available here. In this space, users themselves could establish basic parameters and check out how a character generated according to such criteria would look like.

A Nouns auction contract implies a self-contained mechanism for generating and distributing NFTs with one new humanoid being introduced on a daily basis. Each settlement transaction triggers the next 24-hour period as well as the minting of a unique character. There is no validity period for the mechanic mentioned.

100% of the noun proceeds are deposited into the treasury of the Nouns DAO, a governing authority for this ecosystem. Each humanoid is an irrevocable member of the DAO. It is granted the right to vote in matters concerning the administration and distribution of funds. Voting rights are non-transferable, yet may be delegated while retaining the NFT in personal ownership.

Numerous suggestions from community members are displayed on a dedicated voting page. Everybody has the opportunity to submit their own idea for consideration. Those proposals may require funding, while still ensuring the development of the project in the long run.

Among the proposals are a range of solutions: including the creation of animated short films to promote the project among visitors to Japan's elite ski resort as well as to integrate it into the alpine subculture.

Among the proposals are a range of solutions: including the creation of animated short films to promote the project among visitors of Japan's elite ski resort  as well as to integrate it in alpine subculture.

Who are those Nunders? The title refers to the ten creators of the project. The Nunders are awarded as an extra perk with every tenth Noun generated throughout the first five years of the ecosystem's existence - just . Humanoids like these are automatically redistributed among visionaries.

This project's developers are officially committed to putting Nouns in the public domain. Together they have totally relinquished all their rights over digital artwork worldwide, all under the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act.  

A boon for users? Nouns can be altered, copied, shared, or even used for commercial gain. Such a feature makes nouns appear in prints, advertisements, public gatherings and other events.

The Nouns project had 606 NFTs when this article was written. Their value starts at 31.5 ETH, and the total market cap of a collection equals 6,925 ETH.