Reputation and credibility are at the forefront of every interaction we have in modern society. It’s how we filter signal from noise - what does someone else say about a product, a service, a business?

• Should I buy this product because MKBHD made a YouTube video that reviewed it positively?

• Should I hire this babysitter for my child because they had a high rating on care.com?

• Should I get in the car with this anonymous-to-me Uber driver?

• Should I choose this doctor to check on my heart condition because another doctor strongly recommended them?

• Should I hire this front-end developer contractor to work on my new product because they were well reviewed on Upwork?

Many of these determinations are made through what we call community consensus. An objective way to determine a rating, agreed upon by a large sample of people. We can then quickly and clearly see things like:

• 483 Amazon reviews with 4.8 stars.

• A 4.9 passenger rating in Uber that proves you’ve taken 72 other rides and never lost your lunch in the back seat.

• A mechanic should be avoided because they have multiple negative Google reviews saying they overcharged people for services they didn’t need.

These measurements make trust more objective.

Yet, in web3, trust is entirely subjective. We struggle to measure and document reputation and credibility in web3 - often with great financial loss/risk - and that makes operating like a modern society inherently difficult.

So let’s walk through a few places where web2 community consensus exists today and how those could be brought into the daily lives of web3.

TrustPilot has become one of the top sites to both review and consume reviews for businesses and services. The premise is simple: how much do other people trust that business? This gives an opportunity for customers to be heard, for businesses to build reputation, and for prospective customers to make an educated decision.

TrustPilot is as simple as it gets - leave a review on a scale of 1 to 5. Include a written response. Give the business the opportunity to respond to it, and let everyone see the aggregated reviews. Now you have a scoring system for how consumers perceive these businesses and services that’s easy to interpret at a glance.

That scoring system then becomes how they appeal to their customers - a trusted and safe business with testimonials from members of your community. Community consensus.

Uber’s success is entirely dependent on its rating system. It takes us one step closer to web3 where two anonymous (to each other) parties need to interact to exchange a service. As a rider, you expect to be matched with someone who’s going to drive safely and get you where you intend to be in a timely manner. As a driver, you might be looking for a quiet passenger who respectfully closes the car door instead of slamming it.

Both drivers and passengers have ratings and reputation that you build up over time - and poor rating passengers then get matched with poor rating drivers. This ensures that the best clientele get matched with the best drivers - a trusted system that’s built on community consensus. That Uber driver might have over 9000 ratings at 4.9 stars, and the community has thus determined them fit for driving Uber’s best passengers.

These reputations measured in Uber are incredibly important for both parties. Ruin your reputation, and you lose access to wages as a driver or access to the service as a rider.

eBay as an ecommerce platform was the epitome of The Wild West when the internet was just getting its footing. Fully anonymous sellers and buyers exchanging goods over the internet was instantly fraught with fraud, especially in the late 90s when the internet was a bit more… naive. It wasn’t until eBay started adding feedback scores - a way for you to review the counter-party for every transaction - that they built enough trust on the platform to reach the success they have today.

Being a reputable seller on eBay helps build confidence from the buyer that the item’s condition will be accurately described, that it will arrive on time, and that the seller will communicate well through the process. eBay has even offered significant incentives to their fee structures for sellers who qualify for their “Power Sellers” programs. Why? eBay needs trusted sellers. It’s critical to their business success, just like Uber and their trusted drivers.

What’s our point here?

We rely on credibility and community consensus in many aspects of our day-to-day lives, in real life and online.

That credibility and community consensus is missing and uninstrumented in web3.

Proof of Credibility, coming soon from Ethos.