Hi all,
Here is the kickoff thread for the “Types of Reputation” sub-ring of Trust & Reputation.
To seed discussion, I want to share an essay introducing some of the uses and risks of reputation systems, and describes ways to mitigate the risk by deployed appropriate types of reputation systems to various contexts. Please read and provide feedback!
https://hackernoon.com/reputation-systems-promise-and-peril-ae0af60595ea
If anyone else has resources, please share and discuss!
Thanks for getting this started, Daniel (and great talking in Prague).
I would imagine there will be many reputation systems long-term, and trying to standardize too much will be futile. But hopefully we can agree on a few baselines that guide development across the board. The main thing that I think is critical and oft-overlooked is that reputation must be contextual. Contexts can be specific (a particular marketplace dapp) or very broad (you followed through on your promise to repay credit). But trying to ‘use’ a reputation outside the context it was generated will quickly make it either useless or dangerous.
Norms vary too much across contexts for ‘universal’ reputations of any kind. Even if we subdivide from a ‘general reputation score’ into traits, skills, etc. the context still matters. What qualifies as ‘open’ in one society or community or marketplace will be very different than in others. There’s a large amount of data on this. It also is how reputation works in the physical world, which we often don’t learn from enough as we try to recreate digital systems.