Team
Summary
In certain types of negotiations, the process of determining overlapping interests may involve leaking sensitive information. Leaking sensitive info is a “problem” because fully disclosing your interests risks losing leverage, leading to a suboptimal outcome for yourself. Conversely, not disclosing interests risks not discovering overlapping interests, leading to a suboptimal outcome for both parties.
We want to design a protocol that allows counterparties to discover overlapping interests without disclosing sensitive information before agreement is reached, thus optimizing negotiation outcomes.
PS - our title was chosen to titillate. We describe more serious applications below =D
Q&A
What is the existing target protocol you are hoping to improve or enhance? Eg: hand-washing, traffic system, connector standards, carbon trading.
Let me start with the problem I would like solved:
- Negotiation is the task of finding overlapping interests, with the goal of making a decision acceptable to both parties
- For a straightforward example, at the market, buyers and sellers trade prices until they find a mutually acceptable price for the product they want to exchange
- In certain types of negotiations, the process of determining overlapping interests may involve leaking sensitive information
- For example, during the job interview process, a potential employee may want to know what their holiday policy is but doesn’t want to ask the question openly in case that gives the impression they are not a hard worker
- Conversely, the potential employer may want to know how much compensation to offer to the candidate so that they will accept, without giving too much (higher than candidate’s acceptance price) or too little (risk losing the candidate)
Leaking sensitive info during negotiations is a “problem” because fully disclosing your interests risks losing leverage, leading to a suboptimal outcome for yourself. Conversely, not disclosing interests risks not discovering overlapping interests, leading to a suboptimal outcome for both parties.
This problem is especially critical where there is a power imbalance, where power arises from social, technological or financial capital.
We need a way to find common ground that is more protective of players before agreement is achieved. Voila, what we need is a protocol!
Answering the question directly, the protocol I wish to improve is “negotiations” generally. However, to avoid over-generalization, I focus on negotiations where sensitive information may leak before agreement.
Examples of negotiations that face the problem of sensitive information leakage and will be used to design a protocol:
- Emerging zk applications: how do parties decide what data should be private vs public? There is an assumption in emerging applications that the designer of the zk application knows best (there is no flexibility); but in truth, users may have preferences over what data is kept private/public
- For example, someone is trying to buy an NFT from an artist but doesn’t want to reveal their identity (address) in case they get a marked up price; however, simply hinting at this concern may trigger a mark up anyway. The artist on the other hand cares that the buyer is serious, and has preferences over what kind of profile should own their art. Is there a protocol by which both sides can agree on the relevant information they want to exchange about each other, without revealing info that causes each to lose leverage?
- Negotiating protocol upgrades (Tim Beiko’s original motivation for the Summer of Protocols, as I understand it): How do multiple groups of people decide on which features and on what timeline to execute an upgrade, when each group has its own incentives? There are different foundations, companies and venture capital funds bringing their own vested interests. Is there a protocol by which we can discover overlapping interests, while keeping concealed information about interests that diverge?
- Social coordination: how does a group of friends agree on where and when to go on holiday? For people with financial or health considerations that they prefer to keep private, a privacy-preserving protocol is required to discover an optimal group decision
- Relationships: how does one handle the conversation on STI testing and history when you start to date someone (you don’t want to reveal too much if they leave after the discussion)? What about pre-nuptial agreements (you don’t want to bring it up if it is a dealbreaker, but don’t want to leave it undiscussed if it’s important to you and not a dealbreaker)? Again, a protocol can help to discover overlapping interests (or discover that there are none!)
What is the core idea or insight about potential improvement you want to pursue?
Two ideas are core to designing a protocol that solves the problem:
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We can mediate negotiations using modern technology, in a way that preserves privacy. Zk and/or other privacy technology will be of great use
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We can formalize negotiation processes with a protocol that harnesses what we know about finding common ground no matter the set up of the game (collaborative, zero-sum, etc)
These are references for #2 that may be baked into the protocol:
- About negotiating in sensitive situations: Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High
- About different value systems: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
- About negotiating when the other side is uncooperative: Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations
- About problem-solving through conflict: Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
What is your discovery methodology for investigating the current state of the target protocol? Eg: field observation, expert interviews, historical data analysis, failure event analysis
Interviews of individuals and teams that face these problems e.g. EF core engineers.
Analysis where negotiation failure led to suboptimal outcomes. Source material could be interviews and/or public forum posts.
In what form will you prototype your improvement idea? Eg: Code, reference design implementation, draft proposal shared with experts for feedback, A/B test of ideas with a test audience, prototype hardware, etc.
Detailed write up + implementation + demo.
How will you field-test your improvement idea? Eg: run a restricted pilot at an event, simulation, workshop, etc.
In-person workshops, especially where people who handle sensitive negotiations congregate (e.g. Edge City Esmeralda in June).
Who will be able to judge the quality of your output? Ideally name a few suitable judges.
For zk applications, users and builders in the space.
For protocol upgrades, people like Tim Beiko (Ethereum), Mark Tyneway (Optimism), or someone else with a similar role in other projects.
How will you publish and evangelize your improvement idea? Eg: Submit proposal to a standards body, publish open-source code, produce and release a software development kit etc.
Publish open-source materials and code.
What is the success vision for your idea?
People encountering this pain point today now say, “wow, negotiations happened at least 20% more smoothly than before!”
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