A smart contract solution for transparent auctions on permissioned blockchain platform

Abstract

The rapid and advanced development of the Internet and Technology in recent years has led to the increased popularity of online electronic auctioning (e-auction) systems like eBay. These e-auctions are becoming increasingly essential to the global economy and hold a promising future as they increase user participation and provide advantages such as time-saving, low cost, and ubiquity (not limited to geographic location). However, existing real-time e-auction systems are centralized and rely on intermediaries, leading to issues such as lack of transparency, corruption, security risks, interoperability, and low trust from bidders and auctioneers. To address these issues, we present a permissioned blockchain-based transparent auction system that allows participants to participate in the auction and bidder organization in a single decentralized platform. Auctioneer announces the auction then bidders submit an individual bid for the auction during the auction period. In this paper, we present the implementation of smart contracts over the Hyperledger Fabric platform, conduct testbeds using the caliper benchmark tool, and report the results.