A majority of information on the internet is served and accessed through a relatively few number of service providers.
This structure gives service providers a large influence over how content is accessed.
In this report, we consider a decentralised and user-driven rating platform, independent of a trusted authority, where users controls the availability of rating data. The platform enables applications and users to integrate a rating system, and provides methods for assessing the relevance of content.
We introduce challenges associated with developing a decentralised and trustless system that manages rating data, and considers possible methods and technologies that can be used to solve them.
We argue that the primary thread to the system are Sybil attacks, and we propose a method to mitigate attacks against the rating system, based on a proof-of-work system.
Based on an evaluation of attack resilience, we argue that the system is feasible to implement and operate, but requires a combination of different types of technology that is not straightforward to implement.
We conclude that a complete implementation is necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of the system.