All that said, it's unfair to focus solely on the negatives; it’s not so one-sided. One Chinese value that seems to have stood the test of time is practicality, which can be seen in their ages-old lean towards meritocracy – since before we even had democracy. To be fair, I can say that such a system would indeed be very practical, and even useful. I really love things like CouchSurfing and Airbnb (and even Steemit, to an extent) for their reputation formation, and don’t see it as entirely a bad thing to have a number following me around – but only should I choose or need to share it. In fact, before these services existed I distinctly remember wishing something like a reputation system existed for me to use when finding housing during university… as it was, each new place I lived in, I had to start building up a reputation again from scratch (something that isn’t very easy as a bigger guy).

I suppose the worry is, what will happen to those who don’t use this when some start doing just that? Were I a merchant and two potential clients were interested in my wares, one with and the other without such a score, I honestly would seriously consider going with the rated fellow, all else being equal. We often forget that social networks aren’t just about us anymore, but also about the information flowing in around us thanks to the input of others. Lots of pertinent examples come to mind: our presence in others’ email contact lists (you email may be registered as Snoopy the Wonder Dog in Gmail, but your brother likely has you under your real name in his), their uploading and tagging of us on Facebook, or even here, in this credit rating system, where our presence can quickly become a tiny black hole dwarfed by the meteor shower of other clients happily using it for convenience and security.

I think this sort of thing is inevitable (I mean, we already have our own credit scores, right), it’s just a question of fair and just and secure and private and good implementation is my focus now.