Meta-reputations

Nomen Nescio nobody at dizum.com
Wed Dec 5 22:40:03 PST 2001


To summarize:

You can sell nyms by transferring private keys.  Whether other people
like it or not, it can be done.  And others can't necessarily tell.
There is nothing to stop someone from transferring his private key
in this way.  Any reputation goes along with the nym, and this may be
quite valuable.  As Wolf points out, building up a reputation is a lot
harder than maintaining one.

The main problem is how to do the transfer cleanly, such that the former
nym owner can't damage the reputation once sold.  Several solutions
have been offered, involving doing a key change.  Complications arise
in terms of making the old key useless, but these can probably be worked
out using careful timing, as well as escrow services.

Here is another way to handle it: meta-reputation.  This is your
reputation for reliably handling reputations.  Someone who has done several
nym transfers cleanly and honestly could build up a meta-reputation and
this will facilitate future nym sales.

Meta-reputation cannot be solely associated with a particular nym, but
via transferrable credentials it can build up over a family of nyms
which are unlinkable.  A nym seller can present credentials showing
that it has completed successful nym transfers in the past, honestly
and without problems.  This offers evidence that a proposed nym transfer
will go smoothly as well.

The problem of selling meta-reputation is left as an exercise for
the reader.





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