Reimagining Reputation Systems with Decentralized Identity
— Decentralized Identity, Trust Systems, Reputation Systems, DIDs, VCs, Verifiable Credentials — 2 min read
We’re consuming digital platforms at a record pace. Whether we’re actively contributing or just lurking on the outskirts, they’re almost impossible to avoid. Built into these systems are reputation mechanisms designed to improve the overall quality of the service. This could be to ensure the car that picks you up is clean, the local mechanic you found online doesn’t rip you off, you’re going with a car insurer who’ll support you in an accident, or that you’re not going to get food poisoning from the takeaway shop down the road.
The problem with all of these platforms is their inherent vulnerability to data manipulation. An adequately motivated and skilled user of a platform could create multiple instances of an identity to inflate or deflate reputation. Some platform operators may implement mitigations, such as email validation or SMS verification, but these are trivial to bypass with emails being easy to generate and mobile numbers being easily spoofed or rented. Strengthening these measures generally comes at the expense of privacy (such as requiring a driver's license number or social security number).
Decentralized Identity provides food for thought on how we can build stronger trust in these platforms without the negative consequences of giving up your privacy.
As decentralized identity reaches stronger consumer adoption levels, reputation systems can leverage this cryptographic foundation to ensure users are providing authentic feedback to their databases. Businesses can issue verifiable credentials to real customers, where a reasonable level of trust has been established. When governments issue digital identities (granted they play by the rules), these can be used to prove your citizenship in a way that doesn’t require actually giving up personal information and prevents impersonation.
These credentials can be presented to review websites to ensure genuine customer experiences are being submitted, rather than unscrupulous marketing agencies submitting bogus reviews using fake identities.
Of course, we aren’t there yet, but these are thought exercises that will help address real problems we face now and also ones that will only worsen without active remediation.