Vrbs is a community-run organization that funds open-source technology, art, and public-works projects - and my second big build in the Nouns ecosystem.

The problem it solves is baked into Nouns itself: one NFT auctioned per day means only wealthy auction winners get to vote, while most of the people actually building the movement have no say.

Vrbs redesigns that around participation:

One Vrb, every day, forever - artists create pixel art, the community picks its favorite in a daily Art Race, and the winning piece becomes the Vrb that goes to auction. The artist earns 50% of the proceeds.

Votes you can earn - voting power isn't locked behind auctions. Vrb Votes are a nontransferable token you can buy at any price point through a continuous VRGDA, or earn by contributing.

Governance 50/50 - the DAO is governed equally by NFT holders and vote holders, so builders and artists sit at the same table as collectors.

Fully onchain art, CC0 brand - the artwork lives directly onchain, and nobody owns the brand.

Artists have earned 8.6+ ETH and 365k+ votes through the protocol so far. And because the brand is CC0, the community ran with it far beyond the screen: fan art in every style imaginable, and real-world businesses like Vrbs Coffee and Choco Vrbs putting the duck on coffee bags and chocolate bars.

I built the vrbs.build web app: the daily auction, the Art Race voting experience, and the DAO pages, along with the contract integrations behind them. I co-shaped the product with the protocol's creator, who built the onchain layer. Same stack as Flows: Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind, and viem/wagmi.

Auction UX - a daily auction is a ritual; the interface has to build anticipation, not just process bids.

Designing incentive mechanisms - translating VRGDA token issuance and split governance into screens people understand at a glance.

Community products - when your users are also your governors, product decisions are public decisions.