I am a new steemer living in China. I came across the notion of blockchain in 2013 as bitcoin hit the headlines. But I didn’t pay much attention at that time. Not until late 2015 as I constantly see the word “区块链”（blockchain）in a few wechat posts. But my initial understanding about blockchain comes from a chinese online radio show called “Mr. Zhuo Tech-Talk”（卓老板聊科技）which has more than 50 million audience rating for the 1st season.
Then I got hooked up with the idea of blockchain. I noticed there are numerous projects going on and many more under development. Some of them are trying to solve economic issues, some are keen on developing Dapps aiming at commercial department . As time goes by , more interesting notions come along like side-chain, thunder network and so on. Devs are try to build a different kind of world that we have never seen. Though I cannot foresee the future, I have a strong feeling that some of these projects can become indispensable application in everyday life. And I think personal credit rating is one of them.
Here is the story:
I have been working on my new home renovation lately. And I have to purchase stuff by myself. Instead of going to renovation shopping market, I chose to shop on Taobao.com as it is the largest online shopping platform in China. Here is the thing, when you decide to shop online you are taking risks because you don't know what kind of sellers you are dealing with and there are bunch of factors to consider which drives buyers crazy. But in the end , people tend to choose which store or which product solely by prior customers’ comments. Because #1 it is more reliable than sellers' one side statement. And #2 it is convenient. You scroll down to comment section and choose “further comments” section then you are aware of the product quality or customer service. Even if you walk into a renovation store you probably wouldn’t be able to find a previous buyer who has something to say about the product and he or she happen to be eager to share with you. So I think it is really an advantage thanks to Taobao.
But the business environment is not very healthy to consumers. The reality is ,some sellers might pay their customers to boast their product on comment section. And some even hire paid posters to comment and you can’t expect them to say things honestly.
If things are working this way, no one is strictly reliable. If I get ripped of by the seller, then I can claim I am, to some extend, misguided by the paid poster or water army(水军) and previous buyers who got bribed. However, the healthy ecosystem is price-performance ratio product gets largest exposure leading people to make right decision.
In that particular case that i described above, people didn’t realize credit is an asset that can be vulnerable. In commodity society, each individual’s credit is an important asset meaning you must protect and treasure it. You cannot change the balance of your bank account off the table so you cannot change your credibility record either. If you deceive people you destroy your record irreversibly . So before any user make any decision, he or she has to weigh the pros and cons. I think most wise people can make right decison in front of 20rmb（$2.99) reward vs life-long credit record.
How blockchain sort it out
Think of a decentralized product rating network. In this platform, each individual can register a default number of accounts. And each account is directly linked to the user. Any comment can be identified. A single dishonest comment or even false claims can be traced back to the user itself. Therefore decrease his or her immutable personal credit record.
Honest users can benefit from this system, because sellers wants exposure and attention, they want to market. In that case, they tend to approach buyers with higher credit record to ask if they want to post some authentic comments based on their due-diligence. When people realized their credit is an asset which cannot be traded with petty profits, they will not carelessly throw it randomly or indifferently roll with unreal propaganda. As a result, the healthy ecosystem forms.Ideally , sellers would behave themselves and put every effort on product qualities and service procedures.
meep
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