Efficient implementation of relative bid privacy in sealed-bid auction

Abstract

The concept of relative bid privacy in auction is proposed, which does not conceal the bids, but conceals the link between them and the corresponding bidders. Relative bid privacy leads to three advantages: high efficiency, the bidding values can be very precise and any auction rule can be applied. A new mix network is designed and applied to implement relative bid privacy efficiently. Two rounds of shuffling are employed in the mix network, so that fairness can be achieved in the auction without any trust and relative bid privacy is achieved even in abnormal situations. © Springer-Verlag 2004.