Deposit and Insurance Schemes for Non-Monitored P2P Service

We study mediated P2P marketplaces in which payment for P2P service is done via a trusted intermediary but the intermediary cannot monitor the rendered service. The lack of direct monitoring provides opportunities for malicious peers to launch crippling “lying attacks” against the marketplace. In this paper we propose a suite of payment schemes that are specifically designed to thwart lying attacks. In particular, we explore the use of deposits and insurance in our payment schemes, and determine bounds on satisfactory deposit and insurance levels. The goal of this paper is to introduce to the research community the problem of designing robust payment schemes for mediated P2P marketplaces and to stimulate further research in the area.