Abstract
The aim of the CatNet project is to combine economic and computer science research to provide new coordination mechanisms for large-scale application-layer net-works. The ability of a free-market economy to balance and satisfy the convicting needs of millions of human agents recommends it as a decentralized organizational principle. CatNet will evaluate a decentralized mechanism for resource allocation in computer networks, which is based on the economic paradigm of the Catallaxy. The technical realization of the paradigm builds on software agents which buy and sell network services and resources. This concept is applied both to initial service deployment and service access and to provisioning during the network's lifecycle.