iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Replies

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026

In an SBSPA, every bidder enters their highest price, but none of the other bidders know what that price is. This encourages everyone to name their *true* highest price, *but* it protects the top bidder in the instance in which they are willing to pay a *much* higher price than anyone else. 59/

1984

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026

Say you're that person who raises the bidding from $10 to $50 - you have no way of knowing whether the other bidders would have dropped out at $15 or at $45. If you were the only person who was willing to pay more than $15 for the item, you've just vastly overpaid (by $34.99). 60/

1983

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 04/09/2026

But in an SBSPA, you name your true price, but you only pay the price you *would have paid* if you'd gone through the tedious, expensive, time-consuming process of an open call auction. 61/

1923