in focus: auctions, research, trackers
in focus: auctions, research, trackers
a themed edition
1. Auction design for web3
Scott Kominers, Tim Roughgarden, Sonal Chokshi
Auctions are used in web3 for everything from NFT drops to block space itself -- as auctions, simply put, are ways of allocating scarce resources. But how does mechanism design work, in both theory and practice, when it comes to such permissionless contexts? Two of the top experts in these and related areas provide a quick overview of auction types, incentive design choices, and much more in the latest episode of ‘web3 with a16z’... Including sharing the nuances of “gas wars” and market-clearing prices; a quick explainer on EIP-1559; and tradeoffs plus principles for builders to consider.
listen to this episode of ‘web3 with a16z’
2. Research reads
On understanding fees in EIP-1559, pricing congestion, and “kind of a perpetual second-price auction” / Barnabé Monnot (2021)
On transaction fee mechanism design for the Ethereum blockchain, an economic analysis / Tim Roughgarden (2020)
On credible, truthful, and optimal auctions via cryptographic commitments / Matheus Ferreira and Matt Weinberg (2020)
On a comprehensive survey of privacy-preserving protocols for sealed-bid auctions / Ramiro Alvarez and Mehrdad Nojoumian, Computers & Security (2019)
On bots & priority gas auctions, frontrunning, more / Phil Daian, Goldfeder, Kell, Li, Zhao, Bentov, Breidenbach, Ari Juels (2019)
On cryptography miracles, secure auctions, matching problem verification and preventing collusion in Vickrey auctions / Silvio Micali and Michael Rabin, Communications of the ACM (2014)
On practical, secrecy-preserving, verifiably correct, trustworthy sealed-bid auctions / Parkes, Rabin, Shieber, and Thorpe, ICEC (2006)
On auctions vs. negotiations / Jeremy Bulow and Paul Klemperer, American Economic Review (1996)
3. Building blocks: explore trackers
L2 gas consumption / @funnyking
gas fee predictions / blocknative
watch the burn / Nansen
client diversity / Ether Alpha
beacon chain explorer / Bitfly
bonus: many other “awesome crypto trackers” / via Denis Nazarov
…chicken selfies (h/t @skominers)
--Sonal Chokshi with Sam Ragsdale, Eddy Lazzarin, and a16z crypto team
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