Round 10/Proposal Ideas
Feel free to expand ideas, write them out in more detail, add new ideas, etc
Sealed Bid Auctions
- To avoid issues with time zones and sniping at the end, eliminate live bidding. Instead, each player secretly bids, and the person with the top bid wins, for the second-highest price.
- Submit bids secretly by posting a (salted) hash in #auctions
- Reveal bids at the end
Current draft
Create a rule with the title "Secret Information" and the text:
- When the rules authorize a set of players to "secretly" take an action (a "secret action") then those players can only take that action by producing an SHA-256 hash of an unambiguous declaration that that player is performing that action, along with at least one byte of unrelated text at the end (known as "salt") and posting that hash in #game-actions (or a channel defined by the rule that defines the secret action).
- For each secret action the rules define, the rules can also define the maturation date and the revelation date of the hashed information. If they fail to define the maturation date, it is the beginning of the next rules-defined phase. If they fail to define the revelation date, it is 24 hours after the maturation date.
- At some point while it is after the maturation date but before the revelation date of a secret action, the player who took that action must post the unhashed text corresponding to what they posted when taking the action (including the actions and the salt), and other players should verify that the unhashed text does match up to the hashed text. If the player fails to do so for any secret action, then the action fails. The action also fails if the message in which the hashed text was sent was edited at the revelation date.
- Players may generate SHA-256 hashes by any method that results in a hash verifiable to be computed from the original message by other players. For convenience, here are a few unaffiliated websites that can be used to generate SHA-256 hashes:
Amend Rule "Auctions", subrule "Bidding" by replacing:
- Players may start a bid on a lot or increase one of their existing bids by sending a message in #auctions. Upon starting a bid or increasing a bid, the player loses a number of points equal to the amount placed or increased, respectively. If the player does not have that number of points, or the bid is not a natural number greater than 0, the action fails.
with the following:
- As a secret action in #auctions with default maturation and revelation dates, players can place bids on one or more distinct active lots. Players may not take this action if they have already published a hash that purports to contain a number of bids. If a player attempts to bid something that is not a natural number greater than zero or attempts to bid more than once on a single lot, then the bid fails. If the set of a player's bids that would otherwise succeed add up to a number more than how many points they have, then all of their bids fail.
by replacing the text:
- At the end of the Auction Phase
with:
- At the revelation date for the bidding action defined above
and by replacing the second bullet point of the list following that paragraph with:
- The player who recieved that lot loses the amount of points they bid.