System and method for providing private demand-driven pricing

A method for private variable cost digital goods pricing, comprising the steps of:

• offering for sale by an online vendor system a plurality of non-identically-priced digital goods;
• storing on a database an original encrypted price for the plurality of non-identically-priced digital goods;
• determining a price for at least one of the non-identically priced digital goods, comprising:
• creating a purchase encrypted price by adding a positive constant to the original encrypted price of the non-identically-priced digital good each time that the non-identically priced digital good is purchased;
• measuring, over a fixed time interval, the demand at the purchase encrypted price for the non-identically priced digital good;
• and
• setting the price by subtracting, at the end of the fixed time interval, a positive additive from the purchase encrypted price of the digital good;
• creating a homomorphically encrypted price by homomorphically encrypting the purchase encrypted price;
• providing electronically from a purchaser system a purchasing decision of a particular online buyer about a particular digital good at the homomorphically encrypted price;
• and
• updating with a seller system the original encrypted price of the particular digital good with the price,
• wherein all the steps are performed on a suitably programmed computer.

An online system for providing private demand-driven pricing for variable cost digital goods that are uniquely priced, comprising:

• a database configured to store a table comprising public key encryptions of prices for digital goods stored in the database by a seller system;
• and
• an e-commerce server with a processor and a memory configured to execute code, comprising:
• a pricing module, comprising:
• a price retrieval module configured to access the table of public key encryptions of prices for the digital goods by using partially homomorphic encryption and symmetric encryption;
• and
• a price decryption module configured to decrypt the public key encryption of the price of one of the digital goods with a private key into a decrypted price for pricing by a purchaser system;
• and
• a seller system module configured to update the public key encryptions of the prices of the digital goods;
• and
• a purchasing client with a processor and a memory configured to execute code, comprising:
• an encryption module configured to create a homomorphically encrypted price by homomorphically encrypting the decrypted price;
• a decision module configured to send a purchasing decision about one of the digital goods at the homomorphically encrypted price from the purchaser system to the seller system, and to receive in return, if the purchasing decision is to purchase the digital good, a symmetric key for goods under which the digital goods in the database have been encrypted;
• and
• a goods retrieval module configured to use partially homomorphic encryption and symmetric encryption to access the database and to decrypt the digital good purchased with the symmetric key for goods.

A method for providing private demand-driven pricing for variable cost digital goods that are uniquely priced, comprising the steps of:

• using partially homomorphic encryption and symmetric encryption to access a table comprising public key encryptions of prices for digital goods stored in a database by a seller system;
• decrypting the public key encryption of the price of one of the digital goods with a private key into a decrypted price for pricing by a purchaser system;
• creating a homomorphically encrypted price by homomorphically encrypting the decrypted price;
• sending electronically from a purchaser system a purchasing decision of a particular buyer about one of the digital goods at the homomorphically encrypted price;
• receiving in return, if the purchasing decision is to purchase the digital good, a symmetric key for goods under which the digital goods in the database have been encrypted;
• using partially homomorphic encryption and symmetric encryption to access the database and decrypting the digital good purchased with the symmetric key for goods;
• and
• updating the public key encryptions of the prices of the digital goods,
• wherein all the steps are performed on a suitably programmed computer.