Auction lifecycle

Represented days and auction IDs

The contract maps time to Tokyo-calendar days using its configured Tokyo offset and day duration. currentAuctionId() identifies the auction for the current represented day. auctionStartTimestamp(uint256) and auctionEndTimestamp(uint256) expose its exact UTC boundaries.

The daily cutoff is midnight in Japan, which is 15:00 UTC. A Tablet represents the contract-derived day attached to its auction ID, not the later time at which finalization occurs.

Finalization is independent for each ended auction. An older unfinalized auction does not prevent the current auction from accepting submissions, and ended auctions may be finalized out of order.

Submissions and leadership

While an auction is open:

1. each address may create one submission;
2. the submission supplies imageURI, title, description and an initial CLAY bid;
3. a new bid must meet the protocol minimum and strictly exceed the incumbent leader;
4. an equal bid does not replace the leader; and
5. only the original author may increase that author’s existing submission.

For a new submission, the required total is the protocol minimum when there is no leader. When a leader exists, it is the greater of the protocol minimum and one smallest CLAY unit above the leading bid. Read these values from the same current block.

For an existing submission, increaseBid takes a delta rather than a replacement total. Calculate it from the current protocol minimum, leading bid and author’s existing bid, all read from the same block. Another transaction may change the required amount.

Auction invariants

• one submission per author per auction;
• no submission after the cutoff;
• a new leader strictly exceeds the incumbent;
• only the submission author may increase it;
• the increase follows the exact required-delta rule; and
• finalization can occur only after the auction ends and only once.