On the optimality of Shapley mechanism for funding public excludable goods under Sybil strategies

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mazorra, Bruno
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866913344482443264
author Mazorra, Bruno
author_facet Mazorra, Bruno
contents In the realm of cost-sharing mechanisms, the vulnerability to Sybil strategies -- also known as false-name strategies, where agents create fake identities to manipulate outcomes -- has not yet been studied. In this paper, we delve into the details of different cost-sharing mechanisms proposed in the literature, highlighting their non-Sybil-resistant nature. Furthermore, we prove no deterministic, anonymous, truthful, Sybil-proof, upper semicontinuous, and individually rational cost-sharing mechanism for public excludable goods is better than $Ω(n)$-approximate. This finding reveals an exponential increase in the worst-case social cost in environments where agents are restricted from using Sybil strategies. To circumvent these negative results, we introduce the concept of \textit{Sybil Welfare Invariant} mechanisms, where a mechanism does not decrease its welfare under Sybil strategies when agents choose weak dominant strategies and have subjective prior beliefs over other players' actions. Finally, we prove that the Shapley value mechanism for symmetric and submodular cost functions holds this property, and so deduce that the worst-case social cost of this mechanism is the $n$th harmonic number $\mathcal H_n$ under equilibrium with Sybil strategies, matching the worst-case social cost bound for cost-sharing mechanisms. This finding suggests that any group of agents, each with private valuations, can fund public excludable goods both permissionless and anonymously, achieving efficiency comparable to that of non-anonymous domains, even when the total number of participants is unknown.ess and anonymously, achieving efficiency comparable to that of permissioned and non-anonymous domains, even when the total number of participants is unknown.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2312_17058
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle On the optimality of Shapley mechanism for funding public excludable goods under Sybil strategies
Mazorra, Bruno
Computer Science and Game Theory
In the realm of cost-sharing mechanisms, the vulnerability to Sybil strategies -- also known as false-name strategies, where agents create fake identities to manipulate outcomes -- has not yet been studied. In this paper, we delve into the details of different cost-sharing mechanisms proposed in the literature, highlighting their non-Sybil-resistant nature. Furthermore, we prove no deterministic, anonymous, truthful, Sybil-proof, upper semicontinuous, and individually rational cost-sharing mechanism for public excludable goods is better than $Ω(n)$-approximate. This finding reveals an exponential increase in the worst-case social cost in environments where agents are restricted from using Sybil strategies. To circumvent these negative results, we introduce the concept of \textit{Sybil Welfare Invariant} mechanisms, where a mechanism does not decrease its welfare under Sybil strategies when agents choose weak dominant strategies and have subjective prior beliefs over other players' actions. Finally, we prove that the Shapley value mechanism for symmetric and submodular cost functions holds this property, and so deduce that the worst-case social cost of this mechanism is the $n$th harmonic number $\mathcal H_n$ under equilibrium with Sybil strategies, matching the worst-case social cost bound for cost-sharing mechanisms. This finding suggests that any group of agents, each with private valuations, can fund public excludable goods both permissionless and anonymously, achieving efficiency comparable to that of non-anonymous domains, even when the total number of participants is unknown.ess and anonymously, achieving efficiency comparable to that of permissioned and non-anonymous domains, even when the total number of participants is unknown.
title On the optimality of Shapley mechanism for funding public excludable goods under Sybil strategies
topic Computer Science and Game Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.17058