Naming colors is the most core action that can be taken by Base Colors owners besides owning the color in the first place. Because naming is so core to the project, it was important that we be thoughtful and intentional to get the rules right. We refer to these rules as the name constraints. Base Colors name constraints are simple. The color names can be no longer than 32 characters and they can only include letters and numbers. Simple is good, especially when it makes sense.

We believe the constraints in the Base Colors naming system are better than those of Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Farcaster, and ENS. The key decision and differentiator was not to allow spaces or symbols (or emojis), not even “_” (like Twitter) or “-“ (like Farcaster). When you have underscores, dashes, or spaces, there becomes a question of whether, for example, “Base Colors” or “Base_Colors” may be considered more valuable than “BaseColors”. Even if most people agree that the version without spaces is more valuable, it is not 100% unanimous, and without 100% certainty, there is some amount of uncertainty. In other words, the user has to make a decision, an educated guess. They have to have some doubt, whether consciously or subconsciously. That decision, that uncertainty, is something people prefer not to have. So we don’t make you make that decision. It’s just letters and numbers. No choices. No doubts. No questions.