HOW A ROUND RUNS
Submitted, sealed, opened at once.
Segel would not run tenders, award contracts, or take a cut of anything. What it would hold is the seal, and the property that has to hold is that we could not break it either. This is the lifecycle the design commits to.
Four bids arrive across two weeks. Each one is sealed from the moment it lands, so the day it arrived carries no advantage and no penalty. At the deadline all four open together.
- 01
The buyer posts the round
Specification, quantity, and a closing time. Vendors are invited by name. Nothing about the round is public.
- 02
Bids go in sealed
A bid is binding the moment it is submitted and readable by nobody. Not the buyer, not the other vendors, not us. A vendor can quote their real number on day one.
- 03
The deadline passes
No more bids. Nothing has been read yet, and no extension can retroactively give anyone an early look at what is already in.
- 04
The round opens
Every bid becomes readable to every bidder and the buyer at the same moment. The field is visible, which is what makes losing legible.
- 05
The award
The buyer awards, and the record of what was bid is fixed. Nobody can revise a number after seeing the others.
A buyer who wanted to leak a bid could still telephone a vendor and describe it. What they cannot do is read one.