Re: [circle] p2p auctions

[darkblood]

On Tue, 27 Apr 2004, thomasV wrote:

> Paul Campbell wrote:
> 
> >Any user with basically no trust links and no other activity is blatantly
> >a fake. It is still possible that someone could start out by creating 
> >numerous
> >aliases, and send various minor transactions between those same aliases, and
> >then eventually lead them up to building a web of trust that has no outside
> >branches (making the fake identity(s) look very good), and then repeatedly
> >screw numerous people before being caught. But this exact same behavior
> >actually happens now on eBay so it would be no better.
> >  
> >
> My point is precisely that it would even be worse.
> On eBay, if you want to build yourself a fake reputation,
> you still need to perform a number of transactions between
> yourself and your fake identities. These transactions come
> at a cost, because you must pay ebay fees on them. On
> eBay, you typically do not want to trust somebody who only
> has small amount transactions in his record. (I know what I
> am talking about. I have been a victim of such a a scam,
> where the seller had such a profile).
> 
> If we remove those fees (which is the goal), then anyone
> will be able to create himself a fake reputation, at no cost.
> These fake identities would be impossible to detect.
> 
> If you have a way to counter that, I am buying it.

Alter the trust algorithm, s.t. it requires trust derived from someone
that you have explicitly set a value for at some point in the web before
you start to believe any trust values inheirited from someone that you do
not personally know.  Which is how communities work in r.l. anyway.  The
evil dude can build up his little circle of aliases, all he wants but I
will place no value in that rating until someone that I trust says that
someone in his web of lies speaks truth.  We may want to be able to apply
negative values (I know that 0 is a liar, but I think that the caption was
meant as a joke) so that we can have inheirited distrust.  If you someone
I know has been actively been screwed, I will want take that into account
long before I start looking at what random strangers say about him.

-- Pierre