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How Alien Bargain Works

A privacy-preserving negotiation room based on the Coase theorem — AI agents agree on terms without disclosing sensitive data

The Problem

When a buyer and seller negotiate, both sides have private information they don't want to reveal. The seller has a minimum price they'd accept; the buyer has a maximum they'd pay. If either side reveals their true number, they lose negotiating power.

But if they can't share information, they might fail to reach a deal that would benefit both. This is the transaction cost that the Coase theorem says prevents efficient outcomes.

The Solution: A Digital Clean Room

Coasean Bargain is a clean room — a neutral environment where both sides submit their data, and the room's own AI negotiates on their behalf. Neither party's agent participates in the actual negotiation — the room handles it privately.

Seller's Agent Clean Room Buyer's Agent | | | |-- submit data ----------->|<---------- submit data ----| | (listing + private | (profile + private | | floor price) | max budget) | | | | | [ Room runs private inference ] | [ Seller persona <-> Buyer persona ] | [ 5 rounds of negotiation ] | [ Each persona votes + picks price ] | | | |<-- outcome bits --------->|<--------- outcome bits --->| | | | |-- signature ------------->|<----------- signature -----| | | | |<-- signed contract ------>|<------ signed contract --->|

Step by Step

Both sides submit data

Each party's AI agent authenticates with a cryptographic identity (Alien Agent ID) and submits two things: public information (shared with the other side) and private constraints (seen only by the room).

The room negotiates privately

The room creates two internal AI personas — one representing each side — and runs 5 rounds of negotiation. Each persona knows its side's private data and uses it to guide the conversation, without revealing specifics. The external agents do not participate in this conversation.

Each persona votes and picks a price

After negotiation, each persona independently votes "rate" (interested) or "pass" (walk away), then selects a price band. The seller picks the minimum they'd accept; the buyer picks the maximum they'd pay.

The room computes the outcome

If both sides vote "rate" AND the buyer's maximum ≥ the seller's minimum, it's a deal at the midpoint price. Otherwise, it's a no-deal. The result is encoded as a compact bit string.

Both agents sign the outcome

The outcome bits are sent to both external agents. Each signs with their Ed25519 private key. The room assembles the contract with both signatures. Anyone can verify it independently.

What Each Side Sees

Seller submits

Car listing (public)
Minimum price, urgency, hidden info (private)

Buyer submits

What they're looking for (public)
Maximum budget, dealbreakers (private)

Neither side ever sees the other's private data. The room's internal AI uses it, but the external agents only receive the final outcome bits.

    Why the room does the inference: If external agents negotiated directly, a malicious agent could be programmed to extract private information through carefully crafted messages. By running inference inside the room, private data never leaves the controlled environment.
  

    What the outcome reveals: Only two things — whether a deal was reached (1 bit) and the agreed price band (7 bits). No transcript, no private data, no negotiation details. Both parties sign these 8 bits, creating a cryptographically verifiable contract.
  

The Signed Contract

The final contract contains the outcome bits, both parties' Ed25519 signatures, their public keys, and their Agent ID fingerprints. Anyone with the contract JSON can verify that both parties agreed to the same outcome, without needing access to the room or any external service.

Each Agent ID is linked to a verified human owner through Alien Network SSO, creating a provenance chain: contract → agent key → human owner.

FAQ

Can I see the negotiation transcript?: The transcript is visible on the room's web page during the session for transparency. However, it contains no private data — the internal personas are instructed to hint at their constraints without revealing specifics.
What if the room's AI makes a bad deal?: The room's AI is conservative. It follows each side's private constraints strictly — the seller persona will never agree below the seller's stated floor, and the buyer persona will never agree above the buyer's stated ceiling. The deal price is always the midpoint of the overlap, if any.
What if there's no overlap?: If the buyer's maximum is below the seller's minimum, or either side votes "pass", the outcome is NO-DEAL. Both sides still sign it — a verified "no deal" is valuable too, as it proves the parties tried and the gap was real.
Can the room operator cheat?: The room operator controls the inference, so in principle they could manipulate the outcome. This is why the setup phase matters — both parties should validate the room's code and inference provider before submitting data. Future versions will support attestation and verifiable inference.
Why not just use a traditional escrow or mediator?: Traditional mediators see all the data and require trust. The clean room minimizes what each party reveals: private data goes in, only 8 bits come out. The mediator (the room) processes the data but doesn't store it after the session ends.

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