Human Trust Protocol

An introduction

What’s Wrong With Trust on the Internet?

The Internet has dramatically increased the number of people who users can interact with, but it has not done much to help users trust them
# of well-known contacts
Average # of (Dunbar Facebook number) friends
# of potential contacts on the Internet
150
350
3,800,000,000
HIGH LEVEL OF TRUST LOW

Problems

Fundamental Issues With Content & Trust

Volume & quality of content
Social platforms and messengers are flooded with unwanted messages and inaccurate or misleading content that lead to faulty decision making.

Maximum # of trusted contacts is limited
The Dunbar number says the average person can maintain at most 150 trusted connections, yet today’s world demands interactions well beyond this limit.

Instead of completing transactions online, users rely on phone calls and face-to-face meetings to consummate transactions.

Not enough trust online

Issues With Centralized Reputation

A user’s reputation is fragmented across multiple services, hindering an efficient, comprehensive & transparent view of their trustworthiness.

Partial and fragmented
Limited ability to manage it
Reputation data is embedded and owned by application creators who control and exploit it.

Lack of portability

After investing significant effort in fostering trust in one community, users are unable to transfer their trust elsewhere.

Opportunity

Greater trust unlocks economic opportunities for billions of people.
Sharing economy
$335B
Online-to-offline (O2O)
$431B
Annual worldwide revenue by use case by 2025
Market cap in the trillions for a cryptocurrency that will power 10-20% economic opportunities on a blockchain.

Use Cases

The Human Trust Protocol is valuable in many scenarios.

Messengers and Online Communities

Reputation and trust results from understanding interactions in messaging, group chats, and online forums. Trust among users is increased, and it becomes possible to surface experts and influencers.

Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces

Transactions between sellers and buyers of products and services can be rated, reviewed, and their outcomes tracked. This reputation history conveys the trustworthiness of sellers and even the reliability of buyers.

Social Networks

By associating posts, sponsored updates, and marketing messages reactions and activity from users and companies, trustworthy sources of content are surfaced, and the authenticity of information can be known.

Introducing

Human Trust Protocol

Solves endemic trust problems & usable in any community and marketplace

  1. Verifiable & portable trust
  2. Self-sovereign reputation data
  3. Multi-dimensional reputation
  4. Context-sensitive trust scoring
  5. Incentivization of trustworthy interactions

Three Pillars of the Protocol

Identity Reputation Trust

Foundations

  • Past outcomes
  • Future behavior
    Associate reputation data to capture rich and raw reputation capability and intent on a new reference interaction.

Human Trust Protocol

Decentralized Trust Network

Public & Decentralized Blockchain
HTP Node
Public Permissioned Blockchain
Decentralized Trust Network.

Decentralized nodes anchor verifiable data on a blockchain with scalable data storage off-chain.

Validator Nodes

The trust network uses a multi-layer node approach for scalability. Validator nodes accepting write transactions and synchronize using BFT consensus. Observer nodes provide read-only requests and mainly serve reputation data.

Trust Stake

Incentive for trustworthy interactions.

On interactions and transactions, participants pledge stakes.

Scenario 1

When a task is successful, participants earn reputation and get their stake back in addition to rewards.

Scenario 2

When an interaction does not go as expected, an arbitrator may get involved. If they decide in favor of the customer, the trust stake for both are redistributed to the customer. Either way, both participants develop more reputation from their interaction.

Hub Token Economy & Uses

  1. Pledging stake incentivizes users to be trustworthy on tasks.
  2. Operation of nodes incentivizes increased decentralization of the network.
  3. Payment for task usage incentivizes community developers to create additional application scenarios.

Task Store

Many interactions will need trust. Developers in the community can create new tasks for a Task Store to extend the Protocol and mine tokens from their use.

Examples:

  • Sell a product or service
  • Post a job
  • Join a community
  • Make a post
  • Sign a contract
  • Collect an invoice
  • Arbitrate a dispute
  • Assign a title

Proof of Concept reputation system for ICOs

Find the Best ICOs Find the Best Investors Integrated with HTP

Trust scores are calculated on the likelihood of ICO success based on projects and investors and are rewarded if they’re first from multiple data sources.

Decentralized Job "Hub"

Jobs marketplace with verified profiles

Verified Credentials

Profile credentials, experience & skills are verified by third parties.

Candidates are Paid

Candidates are paid to keep their data up-to-date and when they are contacted by employers.

Hub App

The Hub app is a next-generation professional network built on a messenger experience. It will serve as a proof of concept that will use and advance the Protocol.

Integrated with HTP
The Hub app will serve as both a consumer and contributor to the Protocol’s reputation data in helping users create trust in the communities that the app will support.

End-to-end encryption of both messaging and community content with opportunities to decentralize the app’s backend.

Communities

Hubs, which are communities, that organize around industries, business communities, interests, networks, associations, and collective efforts.

Messaging

Built-in messaging system for fast and secure one-on-one and group messaging (including multimedia messages, document attachments, voice/video chats, and chatbots).

Transactions

Transactions will be supported on the community and the peer-to-peer levels.

Roadmap

HTP Testnet delivered.
Development of Hub app.
Begin ICOhub “PoC” application.
Provisional launch of HTP.
MVP launch of HTP.
Launch of Hub token.
Select community partners.
Security audits.

“The currency of the new economy is trust.”

—Rachel Botsman