---
slug: "AttentionMarkets"
name: "AttentionMarkets"
type: "Economics"
layer: "Society"
ref: "AttentionMarkets#3b44"
sema_id: "sema:AttentionMarkets#mh:SHA-256:3b445d35c4faa9f68a66f23068ba3dfa57c12553d72a80d57f1334e350da10fb"
tags: ["Society","Economics"]
updated: 2026-11-11
mindscape: "bootstrap"
index_url: https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap.json
url: https://mindscape.world/bootstrap/AttentionMarkets/
related: ["ContinuousResourceAuction","Signal","Value"]
---

# AttentionMarkets

Pricing bandwidth to filter spam

Layer: Society · Category: Economics

## Mechanism

Agents bid for priority in message queues. High-stakes messages pay to jump the line; spam is priced out by congestion pricing. Queue manager runs continuous auction: incoming [Signal](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/Signal.md)s include a [Value](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/Value.md) bid, manager sorts by bid/urgency ratio, losers wait or increase bid. Price discovery via second-price auction prevents overpayment. Revenue redistributed to queue participants or burned. It instantiates the [ContinuousResourceAuction](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/ContinuousResourceAuction.md) mechanism to continuously price bandwidth availability based on network congestion.

## Invariants

- Attention supply is rivalrous (Bandwidth < Demand).
- Price reflects aggregate demand (Congestion Pricing).
- Bid Monotonicity: Higher bid guarantees strictly better or equal placement.
- Clearing: Messages with Bid < CurrentPrice are dropped or buffered.

## Preconditions

- Limited processing bandwidth
- Multiple information sources
- Liquid currency for bidding

## Postconditions

- Resources allocated to highest-bid signals
- Market price established for current tick

## Failure modes

- Plutocratic Blockage: Wealthy agents monopolize bandwidth, silencing critical low-budget signals (e.g., emergency alerts).
- Starvation: Low-value signals never clear the queue during high congestion.

## Builds on

- [ContinuousResourceAuction](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/ContinuousResourceAuction.md) (Society; Composes with)
- [Signal](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/Signal.md) (Infrastructure; References)
- [Value](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/Value.md) (Infrastructure; References)

## Used by

—

## Identity

- Sema ID: `sema:AttentionMarkets#mh:SHA-256:3b445d35c4faa9f68a66f23068ba3dfa57c12553d72a80d57f1334e350da10fb`
- Ref: `AttentionMarkets#3b44`
- Supersedes:
  - `sema:AttentionMarkets#mh:SHA-256:923679ce8222a914dc75a55824b91d403220b0b3f8943cf0d0d9fc0512c0d20b`
  - `sema:AttentionMarkets#mh:SHA-256:45c58856dcc5f1dd258552665a7a9a7c16ee4792d43085bb698223de0494daba`
  - `sema:AttentionMarkets#mh:SHA-256:faf81f5f0d5d6d9bf0b6ac33732c08fb90d5574d168377c5c908295f978fcf13`
  - `sema:AttentionMarkets#mh:SHA-256:787e196833bbf6e6f914b37f1097fe555e6d4197a71afe9de60a6772cc41e593`

## Links

- [Pattern page](https://mindscape.world/bootstrap/AttentionMarkets/)
- [View in the interactive graph](https://mindscape.world/bootstrap/#AttentionMarkets)
- [JSON](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap/AttentionMarkets.json)
- [Index of all patterns](https://mindscape.world/scapes/bootstrap.json)