Thread by @redacted_j

I want to talk about the new Auction House contract from @metaplex and what it means for the ecosystem more broadly. A thread 🧵

This contract allows the creation of Auction Houses - entities which can pay for fees, saving users money ( like maybe a seller with 0 sol ;) ), and that can collect fees at a contractual level for both themselves and royalty holders.

Heavily influenced by @jarxiao's work in spl, this contract allows instant sales and making offers WITHOUT ESCROWING NFTS. Sales can happen without either user having to commit to a second action beyond initial bid/ask - once matched, sale execution can be done by perm-less crank

If either the seller or buyer are in breach of their terms when the sale is executed, it simply does not execute. Whichever Auction House lands the sale gets the fees.

Auction Houses can also through a special permission granted by the user, adjust the sale price of the NFT without the user signing, great for matching engines, sorely lacking in this space!

Finally, this contract allows for proper security scoping by secondaries - an Auction House can optionally require it be a signer for every transaction in addition to the user(or in some cases, without the user at all, like executing sales). It can even cancel orders "remotely."

To recap:
- No more escrowing NFTs and missing out on airdrops
- No more making an offer on an NFT and having to return to the site to execute the final sale - it just happens
- Secondaries can now do price matching on your behalf
- Secondaries can pay your fees for you

This contract is intended for use by secondary markets, and it is my belief that within a month, any secondary still using escrowing as a form of sale, or some janky after-program royalties schtick will rapidly begin losing market share.

I'm going to plant my flag here. This is the Candy Machine moment for Secondary Markets. Secondaries won't gain market share any longer simply because they cobbled together an escrow contract. Now the game becomes about the best matching and lead generation. It's game on.

Ask yourself anon, are you ready? It's a whole new competitive landscape now. Some markets will rise, some will fall, and one in particular is already implementing this very contract. Who would you bet on?

You can find the Rust contract here:

github.com/metaplex-found…

And the CLI here:

github.com/metaplex-found…

I will be showcasing how to use it in tomorrow's Office Hours, at noon CST, link drop in office-hours chat at discord.gg/metaplex .

Credits: I'd like to thank @jarxiao for his excellent work on Stateless Asks(github.com/solana-labs/so…), and @aeyakovenko, who had the original idea for that contract.

This build would have been certainly harder to write without their genius. This contract reused a good chunk of @jarxiao's code and he should be congratulated for his efforts.