3 ms·

What about randomizing the auction time?

• gojomo 13y ago
  That sounds like an interesting wrinkle. The (odds of a) round closing could also be sensitive to the in-rush of sealed bids or even how different later orders are from earlier ones. That might help ensure an early-close either just before, or just after, a wave of orders that hints at information the earlier-bids didn't have. (That is, tick the unseal-matching process based on a signal of substantive change, rather than only wall-clock-time.)
  • jacquesm 13y ago
    But that way you could force the closing of a round by flooding with bids, effectively giving more control rather than less to anybody trying to abuse this system.
    • gojomo 13y ago
      Not sure that'd be fatal, or worse than the current races. The reset after a calculated flood-to-force-a-round-closure might even bring a compensating external benefit: a slight pause to digest the new information. It all depends on the specific mechanism design, including choices like whether a flood can be guaranteed to land in a certain round... or might wind up as 'first in' to a subsequent round.