Incentives for sharing in peer-to-peer networks

  • Authors:
  • Philippe Golle;Kevin Leyton-Brown;Ilya Mironov

  • Affiliations:
  • Stanford University, Stanford CA;Stanford University, Stanford CA;Stanford University, Stanford CA

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 3rd ACM conference on Electronic Commerce
  • Year:
  • 2001

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

We consider the free-rider problem that arises in peer-to-peer file sharing networks such as Napster: the problem that individual users are provided with no incentive for adding value to the network. We examine the design implications of the assumption that users will selfishly act to maximize their own rewards, by constructing a formal game theoretic model of the system and analyzing equilibria of user strategies under several novel payment mechanisms. We support and extend upon our theoretical predictions with experimental results from a multi-agent reinforcement learning model.