From: Vipul Ved Prakash <vipul@pobox.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Jun 1996 06:58:24 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com (Cypherpunks)
Subject: pretty good reputation
Message-ID: <199606142000.BAA00199@fountainhead.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


a pretty good detour. 

by what i understand pgp's "web of trust" scheme has flaws. according to 
pgp (alice trusts jane, jane trusts snoopy, bob trusts alice) implies 
bob trusts snoopy. this means that alice trusts jane to the extent, that 
if jane trusts a third person, then a fourth person who trusts alice 
automatically trusts that third person. deducing such results from a 
simple shades of trust system cannot lead to a reliable web of trust.
thats common sense.

what is required is a reputation system wherein trust is  _qualified_ 
rather than _quantified_. its senseless to say i trust him five units.
it will be more appropriate if pgp has a separate tag for "type of trust"
or something like that. 

this kind of thing can be difficult to handle, since it a fuzzy 
parameter. add to the problem a global-system like internet where all 
communication is not person to person. i was wondering if there are 
any working mathematical models for reputation systems, and how 
successful they are.

vipul ved prakash