WHAT THE SEAL RESTS ON

Not trusted to look away. Unable to.

The distinction is the entire product. A promise not to read is a policy, and a policy is only as good as the person administering it on the day.

• 01

  The buyer is not a party to a sealed bid

  Until the round opens, a bid is an arrangement between the vendor and the round. It is not delivered to the buyer, so there is nothing on their side to read.

• 02

  Vendors never see each other

  Not before the deadline, and not afterwards for rounds they were not invited to. A vendor's pricing history stays theirs.

• 03

  No readable copy on our side

  Whoever operates the infrastructure must not thereby be able to open the envelopes. That separation is the design constraint, and if it cannot be held the rest of this is worthless.

• 04

  Opening is an act, not a decision

  The round opens because the deadline passed, not because an administrator ran a query. There is no earlier moment when someone could have chosen differently.