Optimizing Fund Allocation for Game-Based Verifiable Computation Outsourcing

This paper considers the setting where a cloud server executes tasks submitted by multiple clients. Every client wishes to assure honest execution of the tasks by employing a trusted third party (TTP) to verify with a probability. The cloud server makes a deposit for each task it takes, each client allocates a budget for each task submitted, and every party has its limited fund. We study how to allocate the funds optimally such that: a economically-rational cloud server honestly computes each task; the server’s wage is maximized; the delay for task verification is minimized. Game theory is applied to formulate these problems, and optimal solutions are developed. Each solution is evaluated through rigorous proofs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work on optimizing fund allocation for verifiable outsourcing of computation in the setting of one server and multiple clients, based on game theory.