The Noundation – Nouns & CC0

Resources

Nouns & CC0

What is Nouns?

Nouns is a generative non-fungible token project on the Ethereum blockchain. At it’s core, Nouns is a protocol for proliferating Nouns. Nouns are 32x32 pixel characters based on people, places, and things. One noun is generated every day.

Noun Auctions

One noun is auctioned every 24 hours, forever. People can participate in the auctions by visiting nouns.wtf, which is a website maintained by the founders of the project (”Nounders”).

NounsDAO

100% of the proceeds from the daily auctions flow into the NounsDAO treasury. Each Noun represents one vote in all governance matters. Noun votes may also be delegated to individuals or to other groups, such as the Nouncil.

Proposals

Noun votes are used to direct how the treasury is used. Proposals are created by Noun owners as a governance mechanism that executes a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain if a vote is passed.

The real magic happens when these components come together to create the Nouns flywheel:

The Nouns Flywheel

Tweet from 142

- Funds flow into the NounsDAO treasury
- The NounsDAO treasury funds various projects to proliferate Nouns
- The brand of Nouns gains more recognition and awareness
- The Nouns ecosystem and NFTs become more valuable, sustaining auction sales

Read more about the Nouns Virtuous Cycle

CC0

While the Nouns project initiative is an experiment in decentralized governance and the bootstrapping of culture, identity, and community, the intrinsic property that underpins it all is the way the intellectual property is managed. The community operates under a Creative Commons Zero (cc0) license, which means everything that is created exists in the public domain. You can learn more about cc0 here:

1. You've all seen the words - CC0 - and most of you know that some of the most well known projects in the NFT space are CC0 projects. For example, @cryptoadzNFT and @nounsdao. Let's talk about why it matters. A 🧵 ...
— exlawyer.eth/tez (@exlawyernft) May 30, 2022

1/ On cc0, the future of web3 and public goods. I've long felt that cc0 was the right web3 aligned licensing model, but as a solution it seemed a few years out due to the shortcomings of an ultra democratic model. The events of the past few weeks have changed my perspective. 🧵
— Bharat Krymo (@krybharat) May 24, 2022

public domain brands are going to change the game. with monopoly power gone, manufacturers will compete on quality and creativity of goods they produce, and tons of smaller players will enter the manufacturing space. for starters, projects like toadz will take over etsy 1/n https://t.co/KFrstjfz96
— 4156 ⌐◨-◨ (@punk4156) October 2, 2021

More CC0 Links:

Visualize Value

‍Skroma’s Collection on cc0 Twitter Threads

‍List of cc0 Projects ‍

‍Bankless cc0 Article

‍Zeneca Article on cc0

Nouns Extensions & The Nouniverse

Since the IP of Nouns is cc0, anyone can create and build projects using it. Any and all content can be borrowed, copied, remixed, bought, and sold. Building a brand or community from scratch is tough. But with the frictionless ability to participate on any level without asking for permission, the value is in the rapid spreading of the underlying ideas and meaning.

Projects that build upon the idea of Nouns are considered extensions of Nouns. The Nouniverse is the result of this collective, community-driven, permission-less participation and collaboration.

Unified by a shared goal of proliferating Nouns, anyone can share in the economy of ideas and creativity, making it a very exciting place to spend time in Web3. Here are some of the communities that have branched out from Nouns.