Keep sealed bids hidden until the deadline

Choose a lock

Timelock. Timelock prevents the organiser and anyone else with the link from reading bids early. The lock enforces the deadline.

Timelock costs $3 USD per Postdate. This covers opening dates within one year and 100 MB including encryption and file packaging. Opening depends on drand and Postdate being available, and on the encryption remaining secure. Senders can keep original copies. Postdates can still expire or be removed for abuse. You see the price before you create the link. Read about Timelock.

Send it before it opens

Bids arrive by email over a week. The organiser can read each one on arrival. Later bidders may learn amounts that earlier bidders could not know. An organiser cannot prove they did not look.

Set every bid to open at the same deadline. Bidders can send their links early. Nobody can read the bids through those links until bidding closes. All bid links use the same opening time, regardless of arrival order.

Create your Postdate

1. 01

   Ask each bidder to create a message that opens when bidding closes.

2. 02

   Set the opening time to the bid deadline.

3. 03

   Choose Timelock so no bid can be read early.

4. 04

   Collect the links as they arrive.

Create a new Postdate Timelock: $3. No delete link.

Common questions

Who creates the message, the bidder or the organiser?

Each bidder creates a message and sends you the link. You can collect the links without being able to read the bids early.

What stops a bidder submitting late?

Postdate does not record when a bidder sends you the link. It shows when the message was created and its opening date and time. Keep your own record of when each link arrives to check the deadline.

Can a bidder delete their message after submitting?

Bidders cannot delete a Timelock message. Ask them to choose Timelock so they cannot withdraw the message after submitting.

More guides

Share board papers at a set time, Publish material when an NDA expires

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