A Prototype for an Agent-Based Secure Electronic Marketplace Including Reputation-Tracking Mechanisms

Abstract

Software agents will play a crucial role in the coming digital economy, but their reliability and honesty cannot be guaranteed by technical security mechanisms, such as encryption of messages and digital signing of documents, and entities that can sanction fraudulent behavior in open networks are still in a rudimentary stage. This article describes a reputation mechanism that records previous cooperation behavior of participants in agent-based markets and conveys this information to other software agents, thereby influencing the future behavior of participants. The mechanism has been prototypically implemented in the Avalanche multiagent system. The deployment of this reputation mechanism will help to exclude fraudulent software agents from market participation.