A market architecture for multi-agent contracting

We present a generalized market architecture that provides support for a variety of types of transactions, from simple buying and selling of goods and services to complex multi-agent contract negotiations. This architecture is organized around three basic com- ponents: the exchange, the market, and the session. We also present a negotiation protocol for planning by contracting that takes advantage of the services of the market. We show how the existence of an appropriate market infrastructure can add value to a multi-agent contracting protocol by controlling fraud and discouraging counterspeculation.

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