# Why auction design matters (ft. Nobel economist Paul Milgrom) Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/a16z-crypto-show-5434524/why-auction-design-matters-ft-nobel-economist-paul-milgrom Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/a16z-crypto-show-5434524/why-auction-design-matters-ft-nobel-economist-paul-milgrom.md Podcast: [a16z crypto show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/a16z-crypto-show-5434524) Published: 2026-07-17T16:12:47+00:00 Episode link: https://web3-with-a16z.simplecast.com/episodes/first-principles-paul-milgrom-96zIJ_1g Audio file: https://mgln.ai/e/1344/afp-848985-injected.calisto.simplecastaudio.com/bf52be5a-9faf-45fb-9bc3-bb4270ec53d9/episodes/8ba9e3d8-f4e5-4211-b378-0b640d621fc2/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=bf52be5a-9faf-45fb-9bc3-bb4270ec53d9&awEpisodeId=8ba9e3d8-f4e5-4211-b378-0b640d621fc2&feed=XPOpH7r4 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/a16z-crypto-show-5434524/episodes/why-auction-design-matters-ft-nobel-economist-paul-milgrom Duration seconds: 4680 ## Resource Long before onchain markets made mechanism design a daily engineering problem, Nobel Prize winner Paul Milgrom was asking how prices actually form — and how better auction rules could reshape actual markets. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/a16z-crypto-show-5434524/episodes/why-auction-design-matters-ft-nobel-economist-paul-milgrom/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/a16z-crypto-show-5434524/why-auction-design-matters-ft-nobel-economist-paul-milgrom.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.