Option contracts for a privacy-aware market
This addresses privacy concerns for suppliers in markets, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing concepts like differential privacy and option contracts without claiming major breakthroughs.
The paper tackles the problem of protecting suppliers' private information in a marketplace by proposing a mechanism that uses differential privacy and option contracts, allowing privacy-aware suppliers to sell stock at reduced prices while a broker ensures demand is met.
Suppliers (including companies and individual prosumers) may wish to protect their private information when selling items they have in stock. A market is envisaged where private information can be protected through the use of differential privacy and option contracts, while privacy-aware suppliers deliver their stock at a reduced price. In such a marketplace a broker acts as intermediary between privacy-aware suppliers and end customers, providing the extra items possibly needed to fully meet the customers' demand, while end customers book the items they need through an option contract. All stakeholders may benefit from such a marketplace. A formula is provided for the option price, and a budget equation is set for the mechanism to be profitable for the broker/producer.