English vs. sealed bid in anonymous electronic auction protocols

We propose an anonymous sealed-bid auction protocol based on C. Cachin's two server sealed-bid auction scheme (1999) by applying the idea from K. Omote and A. Miyaji's English auction scheme. The technique of group signatures and the identity escrow play the central roles in our proposed scheme. We further consider the relevance and gap between the English and the sealed-bid in anonymous auction protocols.