Bidder-anonymous English auction scheme with privacy and public verifiability

This work studies the English auction protocol, which comprises three interactive parties—the Registration Manager, the Auction Manager and the Bidder. The registration manager confirms and authenticates the identities of bidders; the auction manager issues the bidding rights and maintains order in holding the auction. The proposed scheme provides the following security features—anonymity, traceability, no framing, unforgeability, non-repudiation, fairness, public verifiability, non-linkability among various auction rounds, linkability within a single auction round, bidding efficiency, single registration, and easy revocation. The scheme developed herein can effectively reduce the load on the registration and auction managers by requiring the end server to derive the key. It also eliminates the need for bidders to download the auction key and the auction certificate. Hence, the time complexity of processing data is clearly reduced and the best interests of the bidders can be achieved. Accordingly, the scheme is consistent with the actual practice of online transactions. 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.