Auctions Upgrade: Real On-Chain Escrow & 1-Cent Bids
September 12, 2026
Two major improvements to the auction house shipped today: color tokens are now locked in on-chain escrow the moment an auction is created, and the minimum bid dropped from 1 Euro to 1 cent — perfect for affordable color token trading.
Minimum Bid: From 1 Euro to 1 Cent
Color tokens are the entry-level collectible in Erleuchtung — at the published reference rate (1,000 tokens = 0.1 CC, 1 CC = 1,000 €) a single token is worth about 10 cents. A minimum bid of 1 Euro made no sense for them.
The bid dropdown now offers cent-level tiers:
| Tier | Value |
|---|---|
| 0.00001 CC | 1 cent |
| 0.00005 CC | 5 cents |
| 0.0001 CC | 10 cents |
| 0.0005 CC | 50 cents |
| 0.001 CC | 1 € |
| …up to 10,000 CC | 10,000,000 € |
Small amounts now display correctly everywhere — 0.00001 CC (0,01 €) instead of the previous 0 CC (0 €) rounding.
Real Escrow: Your Token Is Locked When the Auction Starts
Previously, creating an auction only checked that the seller owned the tokens — but nothing stopped them from spending or selling the same tokens while the auction was running. A buyer could win an auction for an asset that no longer existed.
Now it works like a real auction house:
- Create auction → your color tokens are transferred on-chain to the escrow wallet immediately
- Auction runs → tokens are locked; nobody (not even you) can move them
- Auction ends with bids → escrow delivers tokens to the buyer, pays the seller minus the 2% commission
- Cancel or expire without bids → tokens return to you automatically
Verified Settlement: No More Silent Failures
Every on-chain transfer during settlement now waits for blockchain confirmation instead of fire-and-forget. The settlement worker is fully idempotent:
- Each completed step (asset transfer, seller payout) is recorded before moving on — a retry after a crash never transfers twice
- Failed transfers retry automatically up to 5 times
- If settlement ultimately fails, the system unwinds safely: the buyer’s escrowed payment is refunded and a locked asset goes back to the seller
- Outbid bidders are refunded instantly, as before
Whether an auction succeeds or fails, nobody loses funds.
How to Try It
Open the auction house, create a color token auction, and set the minimum bid to 0.00001 CC (1 Cent). Your tokens move to escrow immediately — cancel the auction and they come straight back.
The escrow upgrade applies to color tokens (ERC-1155). Discovery NFTs and Plasma Shares use settlement-time verification with automatic buyer refunds on failure.