Sealed-bid auctions with efficient bids

Abstract

Efficient general secure multiparty computation (MPC) protocols were previously proposed, and the combination with the efficient auction circuits achieves the efficient sealed-bid auctions with the full privacy and correctness. However, the combination requires that each bidder submits ciphertexts of bits representing his bid, and their zeroknowledge proofs. This cost amounts to about 80 multi-exponentiations in usual case that the bid size is 20 bits (i.e. about 1,000,000 bid prices). This paper proposes the sealed-bid auction protocols based on the efficient MPC protocols, where a bidder can submit only a single ciphertext. The bidder's cost is a few multi- exponentiations, and thus the proposed protocols are suitable for mobile bidders. © Springer-Verlag 2004.