Society · Economics
ContinuousResourceAuction
Algorithmic pricing for rivalrous resources
Definition
Mechanism
A market Protocol for allocating rivalrous resources (e.g., compute, bandwidth, state slots) where the pricing function is continuous and algorithmic. It actively invokes StateLock to serialize bidding attempts and accepts Value metrics to determine allocation. Unlike static auctions, it supports configurable pricing models via parameters, allowing agents to implement congestion pricing (e.g., EIP-1559), Dutch auctions, or linear decay.
Invariants
- Holding the resource costs more than nothing, at `holding_cost_rate`.
- Price adjusts to demand or to time.
- Resolves to a winner or resets within `cycle_time`.
Risks
Failure modes
Price Instability
Aggressive pricing curves lead to volatility that discourages long-term resource planning.
Monopoly Lockout
Wealthy agents can permanently rent-seek if the holding cost is too low relative to their capital.
Relationships
Builds on
Accepts
Infrastructure
A measure of utility
Composes with
Atomic coordination via temporary state fusion
References
Infrastructure
Communication standard
Used by
Composes with
Pricing bandwidth to filter spam
Reference
Parameters
pricing_modelEnum, {CongestionPricing, DutchAuction, Linear}- Default: CongestionPricing
cycle_timeDuration, [100ms, 1h]- Duration of each auction cycle
holding_cost_rateFloat, (0.0, 1.0]- Cost per cycle of continuing to hold the resource. Cannot be zero.
Signature
Protocol(Value)
Data schema
{
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"resource_id": {
"type": "string"
},
"current_price": {
"type": "number"
},
"current_holder": {
"type": "string"
},
"next_cycle_start": {
"type": "integer"
}
},
"required": [
"resource_id",
"current_price",
"next_cycle_start"
]
}