A blockchain-based reputation system for consulting

Trust between client and consultant is perhaps the most important asset in con-sulting, as this is a highly intangible knowledge-intensive business that concerns is-sues of outstanding strategic and operational importance for the customers. Cli-ents who have not worked with a particular consultancy face considerable risk when they place an order while lacking reliable information about the service quality they can expect. There is a strong link between trust and reputation, as the positive reputation of a consultancy can act as a substitute for a new client’s missing individual experience with the provider, fostering trust in the service quali-ty. Thus, creating, maintaining, and demonstrating a good reputation is of signifi-cant importance for consultancies in a very competitive industry. To facilitate trustworthy signals, we design and implement a novel reputation mechanism that carries a monetary weight stored on a blockchain network as an immutable, decentralized, and transparent ledger. Based on an implementation in the Ethereum network and subsequent evaluation, we conclude that the reputation mechanism can contribute to leveling information asymmetry and reducing risk while increasing reputation and trust. The mechanism lends itself to being used in other business-to-business scenarios that suffer from similar information asymmetries.