Privacy preserving negotiation and computation
US6834272B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Oct 28, 1999 |
| Grant date | Dec 21, 2004 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 28, 2019 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L2209/76
- WIPO fieldIT methods for management
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method for secure multi-party function evaluation with a non-limiting application to the holding of auctions. The outcome of an auction can be determined by an auctioneer without learning any information about the bids, except for the bid which determines the clearing price, and without learning any information about the bidders, except for the winning bidder. The security of this information is maintained even after the conclusion of the auction. Moreover, the bidders can individually and privately verify that the auction was conducted correctly, thereby establishing a mechanism for trust. The method is well-suited to the holding of privacy-protected auctions over computer networks because of its high efficiency, requiring only a single round of interactive communication without any communication among the bidders. Furthermore, the bulk of the computation and data communication or the protocol can be done in advance of the auction itself, and is adaptable to distribution via stored media. The function evaluated by the method can be generalized to any function which can be evaluated by a circuit of gates. The method can be applied in general as a secure multi-party function evalu…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.