Sealed-Bid Auction

A sealed bid first-price auction is where bidders submit sealed bids (unknown to other bidders) and the highest bidder wins and pays his bid. Bids remain confidential until they are simultaneously revealed. These auctions are often used in government procurement and situations where transparency in the bidding process is crucial.

Following are the attributes of this auctioning mechanism:

• Start date and time : The auction start date and time (some time in future) before which it cannot be started.

• Commit time : The time before which all the sealed bids need to be submitted/committed.

• Reveal time : The time (after the commit time ends) before which all the bids need to be disclosed/revealed.