Star ratings are cheap because anyone can leave one. We built reputation from the only thing that is expensive to fake — completed, settled deals.
Every marketplace eventually confronts the same problem: the signal meant to establish trust becomes the thing people game. Star ratings are cheap because anyone can leave one, and the loudest reviewer is rarely the most honest. If a number can be bought, it stops meaning anything.
We wanted a reputation that is expensive to fake. So on Nnarksup, reputation is not a rating you collect — it is a consequence of what you actually completed.
Fed by behaviour, not opinion
A company's reputation is a continuous, behaviour-driven score. It is fed by:
- Settled escrow value — money that actually moved through completed deals, not headline deal size.
- Distinct counterparties — trust earned across many different partners is harder to manufacture than a ring of friends.
- On-time delivery — milestones met when they were promised.
- Completed deals — deals carried all the way to settlement, not just started.
- Reviews — a genuine signal, weighted alongside the harder ones so it cannot dominate.
The point of the mix is that the cheap inputs cannot outrun the expensive ones.
Settled, not promised
The single most important word here is settled. A deal that is announced, or funded, or halfway through, contributes nothing on its own. Reputation moves when value has been delivered and money has been released against proven milestones. You are scored on what you finished, not what you pledged.
Why it cannot be bought
Because the inputs are settled escrow and distinct real counterparties, buying reputation would mean buying and completing real deals with real, unrelated parties — at which point you are simply a trustworthy business, which is the entire idea. Collusion and self-dealing are exactly the patterns we watch for and discount.
Trust that is expensive to fake is trust worth having. That is the only kind we are willing to display.