Challenges and Opportunities Associated with a Bitcoin-Based Transaction Rating System

It has been shown that seller ratings given by previous buyers give new customers useful information when making purchasing decisions. Bitcoin, however, is designed to obfuscate the link between buyer and seller with a layer of limited anonymity, thus preventing buyers from finding or validating this information. While this level of anonymity is valued by the Bitcoin community, as Bitcoin moves toward greater adoption there will be pressure from buyers who wish to know more about who they are doing business with, and sellers who consider their reputation a strong selling point, to allow greater transparency. We consider three different models by which a reputation/rating system could be implemented in conjunction with Bitcoin transactions and consider pros and cons of each. We find that each presents challenges on both the technological and social fronts.