Blockchain based smart contract for sealed--bid auction

Abstract

In this growing world, Internet has changed so much to an extent that it turned into a powerful tool in every aspects of our lives.E-auction is one of those things which helps the bidders to take part in an auction online over the air. In a sealed bid third parties need to pay an extra cost to help the buyers and sellers carry out their exchange without any hassle. But there can be a breach of trust by the third parties. Owners of the auction or the company that is auctioning can have direct entry to it when the auction is run on a decentralized platform. When the users auction off something on the chain, the smart contract takes control of the auctioned asset and thereafter it manages the bids associated. In this paper, we execute a smart contract for a verifiable sealed-bid auction on the Ethereum blockchain. The type of auction used is sealed-bid in which the bidders submit their bids privately and each bidder can participate only once. As per the biddings received, the highest bidder wins and pays the highest corresponding highest submitted bid. Additionally, before the auction ends the bidder can withdraw the bid after submitting it. In such a case the bidder will have another chance to place the bid. This smart contract implementation abides by the true essence of a sealed-bid, to be precise, no information about the biddings is leaked to the bidders except for the highest bid.