Trust and Reputation in Peer-to-Peer Systems

Synonyms

Feedback systems; Word of mouth

Definition

Trust means reliance on something or someone’s action. As such, it involves risks on the side of the subject of trust, i.e., trustor. Reducing these risks is the main goal of a trust management system. A possible way to do this is through reputation management, i.e., reputation systems.

In a typical large scale online setting, be it on the Web or in P2P networks, it is necessary to learn more about prospective transaction partners prior to engaging in a transaction with them. The size of such systems makes it highly improbable to meet the same partner repeatedly, so own experience is of little use. The types of the performed transactions are often such that well-established forms of quality assurance (e.g., contracts) are highly inefficient. Under such circumstances, reputation systems (“word of mouth” [1]) turn out to be the only viable mechanism to encourage trustworthy behavior and guide people to decide whom to trust and to what...