Web of Trust

Email with Mr. TS | October 18th, 2018

In response to the question: In your mind, where do you see web of trust being used by the dev teams? Some kind of reputation system?

Generally I think that rich identity in combination with trust/relationships/communities is a path worth exploring. Reputation is certainly a part of that equation. I have no idea how it would work in production at scale or any delusions that my perspective is right. I just think it should be talked about and researched in a scientific atmosphere — more than it is now.

All of my current work touches on pushing my understanding of digital identity, trust, reputation, and governance further. Privacy is a big concern, as well as general rights to individual privacy. I find it concerning that the framers of the US constitution did not bake in more individual privacy rights, and explicitly.

The right to be forgotten is another challenging topic. The route I feel comfortable pursuing with Kelvin — is that people should have the ability to delete their accounts. Within that ecosystem — they can be forgotten… but I still worry about reputation metrics spilling outside of that one example.

There is nothing stopping anyone from creating a TOR-based semi-anonymous decentralized person rating system right now. Attempts on that front have been halted due to a backlash from the general public against co-founders. I believe the natural progression for a system like that, in most people’s hands, is disastrous under current North American sociological contexts. I’m motivated to work on these topics with a scientific and laboratory mindset, where people assume that they are wrong as a starting point. Test-driven thinking.

I see the creators of ICOs following the cognitive dissonance you discuss of optical anarchy but practical dictatorship — or worse — capitalistic mob rule group decision making processes. I want to see experiments in representative democracy, a republic, socialism, elective monarchy, AI-governance, and libertarian socialism. Ideally in some cases, sans the monetary component.

I believe that reputation/person-hood is an under-quantized asset with tangible uses as a money replacement. I believe that the information economy is evolving, and I see these opinions somewhat validated in the progression of the advertising/data-theft status quo.

Now I’m rambling, sorry. I hope that addresses what you were asking. In any case, if I can find ways to work on these topics — I hope that it can be alongside skeptical veterans.