Riggs: Decentralized Sealed-Bid Auctions

Nirvan Tyagi; Arasu Arun; Cody Freitag; Riad Wahby; Joseph Bonneau; David Mazières

Paper 2023/1336

Riggs: Decentralized Sealed-Bid Auctions

Nirvan Tyagi

, Cornell University

Arasu Arun

, New York University

Cody Freitag

, Cornell Tech

Riad Wahby

, Carnegie Mellon University, Cubist

Joseph Bonneau

, New York University, a16z crypto research

David Mazières

, Stanford University

Abstract

We introduce the first practical protocols for fully decentralized sealed-bid auctions using timed commitments. Timed commitments ensure that the auction is finalized fairly even if all participants drop out after posting bids or if $n-1$ bidders collude to try to learn the $n^{th}$ bidder’s bid value. Our protocols rely on a novel non-malleable timed commitment scheme which efficiently supports range proofs to establish that bidders have sufficient funds to cover a hidden bid value. This allows us to penalize users who abandon bids for exactly the bid value, while supporting simultaneous bidding in multiple auctions with a shared collateral pool. Our protocols are concretely efficient and we have implemented them in an Ethereum- compatible smart contract which automatically enforces payment and delivery of an auctioned digital asset.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Applications
Publication info: Published elsewhere. Major revision. ACM CCS 2023
DOI: 10.1145/3576915.3623182
Keywords: auctions timed commitments range proofs blockchains
Contact author(s): nirvan tyagi @ gmail com
History: 2023-09-08: approved; 2023-09-07: received; See all versions
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2023/1336
License: CC BY

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2023/1336,
      author = {Nirvan Tyagi and Arasu Arun and Cody Freitag and Riad Wahby and Joseph Bonneau and David Mazières},
      title = {Riggs: Decentralized Sealed-Bid Auctions},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2023/1336},
      year = {2023},
      doi = {10.1145/3576915.3623182},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/1336}
}