Principle of Relativity for Web of Trust

The Principle of Relativity for the Web of Trust asserts that trust scores calculated from the perspective of each user individually are to be favored over “global” trust scores which have been the norm ever since the advent of web 2.0.

This Principle was stated explicitly as early as 2015 in an essay entitled The Principle of Relativity for WoT and as recently as June 2024 in the essay Navigating the Social Graph A Practical Overview for Understanding and Implementation where it was termed the Principle of Relativity in cyberspace.

An alternative statement of the Principle is that there is in fact no such thing as a “global” trust score. According to this perspective, a “global” trust score is nothing other than a local trust score calculated from the perspective of a specific platform, tech company or other centralized entity.

Trust score systems in nostr that adhere to this Principle include the Web of Trust Score and the Influence Score.