

Bitrated Adds Reputation System, Offering ‘Chargeback-Like’ Process to Bitcoin - nadaviv
http://cointelegraph.com/news/113535/bitrated-adds-reputation-system-offering-chargeback-like-process-to-bitcoin

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nadaviv
Hey everyone, Nadav from Bitrated here. Bitrated is a trust platform that
combines identity & reputation management, smart contracts for reversible
payments and a marketplace for trusted agents to serve as arbitrators.

Happy to answer your questions!

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deweller
Hi Nadaviv. Great job on the platform so far.

I wrestle with how feasible it is for systems like this to be decentralized.
Bitrated is centralized. If your site shuts down or is shut the service ends.
But being centralized makes it convenient and useful.

My question is this: Do you have any goals to become more decentralized as
decentralization technology evolves? If so, are there any plans you care to
share?

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nadaviv
Great question. Yes, Bitrated is indeed centralized, but strives for a model
that requires putting as little trust as possible on the service operator.

For example - user reviews, contracts and profile fields are signed with the
user's ECDSA key, to make it possible to independently verify its authenticity
and prevent tampering by third parties (or even by Bitrated itself). All the
information is also freely available via open APIs, to make it easily
archivable. User funds are fully recoverable in case Bitrated shuts down.

I would say that many of the benefits that can be gained from decentralized
technologies can in fact also be achieved by using standard cryptography and
leveraging the blockchain technology in smart ways. We have some interesting
plans in regards to that.

We expanded more on that here:

[https://www.bitrated.com/security#trustless-server-
model](https://www.bitrated.com/security#trustless-server-model)

[https://www.bitrated.com/security#cryptography-backed-
digita...](https://www.bitrated.com/security#cryptography-backed-digital-
identities)

We choose that route because building a decentralized solution requires a lot
of additional resources, effort and time, and we believe that the Bitcoin
ecosystem needs to have a working solution today. But we'll definitely be
considering an even more decentralized approach as the technology evolves.

