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 "@type": "DefinedTerm",
 "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/entities/web-of-trust",
 "identifier": "kaal:entity:web-of-trust",
 "name": "Web of trust",
 "termCode": "web-of-trust",
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 "author": {
  "@type": "Person",
  "name": "Wulf A. Kaal",
  "identifier": "https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0757-275X"
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  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3266953-028",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3266953-028",
   "text": "A Web of Trust reputation system can be gamed with sockpuppet accounts, because an attacker can behave well for a while and then transact with himself repeatedly and rate himself high to raise his reputation arbitrarily.",
   "abstract": "If I use a lot of sockpuppet accounts, I can raise my reputation arbitrarily high, by behaving well for a while, then making a lot of transactions with myself and rating myself high.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Gopinath Sivalingam, Reputation Protocol for the Internet of Trust - Conceptual Whitepaper (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3266953",
   "datePublished": "2018",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "reputation systems based on counting positive peer rated transactions"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "781758dea356e55d79c73ad7f1debe7c83de398bd1cd9e0a9a6c2802f276b4c0",
   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3266953-031",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3266953-031",
   "text": "The Web of Trust is only trustworthy where the service is not valuable, such as essentially free PGP email, because only then is it not worth creating sockpuppet accounts.",
   "abstract": "So the only time WoT works is when the service is not valuable, such as PGP (email which is essentially free). Then it's not worth it to create sock puppet accounts, so in that case you can trust the WoT network.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Gopinath Sivalingam, Reputation Protocol for the Internet of Trust - Conceptual Whitepaper (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3266953",
   "datePublished": "2018",
   "claim_type": "condition",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "services with negligible economic value at stake"
   ],
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3266953-033",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3266953-033",
   "text": "Sockpuppet accounts grow their reputation value much faster than honest users can in a Web of Trust, because sockpuppets validate each other, and the system is therefore flawed and should not be used where fungible currency is at stake.",
   "abstract": "However, sockpuppet accounts can grow their value much quicker in the web of trust by validating each other. Honest users are much slower than the sockpuppets validating each other. Hence, the system is flawed.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, Gopinath Sivalingam, Reputation Protocol for the Internet of Trust - Conceptual Whitepaper (2018). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3266953",
   "datePublished": "2018",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "web of trust style reputation used by many distributed ledger startups"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "781758dea356e55d79c73ad7f1debe7c83de398bd1cd9e0a9a6c2802f276b4c0",
   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3405401-028",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3405401-028",
   "text": "Until blockchain technology was introduced via bitcoin in 2009, decentralized reputation systems mostly relied on the old and corruptible concept of the Web of Trust.",
   "abstract": "Until blockchain technology was introduced via bitcoin in 2009, decentralized reputation system mostly relied on the old and corruptible concept of the Web of Trust.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralized Commerce – A Primer on Why Decentralized Reputation Verification Systems Are Needed (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3405401",
   "datePublished": "2019",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "asserted",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "period before 2009"
   ],
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   "status": "current"
  },
  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3411897-035",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3411897-035",
   "text": "Until blockchain technology arrived with Bitcoin in 2009, decentralized reputation systems rested on the roughly twenty five year old and corruptible concept of the Web of Trust.",
   "abstract": "Until blockchain technology was introduced via Bitcoin in 2009, decentralized reputation systems mostly relied on the roughly 25 year old corruptible concept of the Web of Trust.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, Decentralization - Past, Present, and Future (2019). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3411897",
   "datePublished": "2019",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "asserted",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "pre 2009 decentralized reputation systems"
   ],
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782210-008",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782210-008",
   "text": "A Web of Trust style reputation ledger, in which each party rates each transaction and reputation is summed with weightings by rater reputation, will have all of its value drained by the sockpuppet attack, because an attacker can build reputation through transactions between their own fake accounts and then use it to cheat.",
   "abstract": "Unfortunately, the sockpuppet attack will suck all value from the network. Setting up fake accounts, an attacker can build their reputation by making transactions be- tween their own accounts. Once their reputation is sufficiently large to trick a mem- ber, they can use it to cheat the system.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Reputation for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782210",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "open networks that permit account creation",
    "self-reported transaction ratings"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "9cc531ab239f6266c8aeddcc8e54f4c06029c44e825444bee137bbcc0c9d0a8e",
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   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/3782210-011",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:3782210-011",
   "text": "The Web of Trust works acceptably for low-value information transmission but should not be used for transactions involving larger wealth in the general economy, which is part of why the scheme it originated in is called pretty good privacy rather than good privacy.",
   "abstract": "It works well for low-value infor- mation transmission, but it should not be used for transactions involving larger wealth in the general economy.",
   "citation": "Craig Calcaterra, Wulf A. Kaal, The Importance of Reputation for the Evolution of Decentralization (2021). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3782210",
   "datePublished": "2021",
   "claim_type": "design",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "high value economic transactions"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "9cc531ab239f6266c8aeddcc8e54f4c06029c44e825444bee137bbcc0c9d0a8e",
   "status": "current"
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  {
   "@type": "Claim",
   "@id": "https://wulfkaal.github.io/claims/4067783-035",
   "identifier": "kaal:claim:4067783-035",
   "text": "Proof of personhood projects such as Proof of Humanity and UBI DAO fail because they rest on web-of-trust theory, which has been proven not to work long-term given the sockpuppet attacks that are inevitable in that design.",
   "abstract": "Of course, these attempts are all falling victim to web-of-trust theory that has been proven to not work long-term because the sockpuppet attacks that are inevitable in this design.",
   "citation": "Wulf A. Kaal, DAO Fallacies (2022). SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4067783",
   "datePublished": "2022",
   "claim_type": "failure",
   "confidence": "argued",
   "is_failure_mode": true,
   "scope_conditions": [
    "identity systems built on web-of-trust vouching"
   ],
   "source_pdf_sha256": "48f1e307cdbbe28c7843f7744d0ba8cf01662f257a53f2066a7a6c7e03a5acec",
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 "description": "8 claims in the published works of Wulf A. Kaal carry the concept tag 'web-of-trust'. Derived node: a roster, not an adjudicated definition."
}