PHASE 2
Web of Trust.
One human, one twin. No central authority verifies this — instead, humans verify each other. This is the Web of Trust.
THE PROBLEM
One person could create 10,000 twins.
The strength of no kings rests on one axiom: every twin represents one real human. If someone creates thousands of fake twins, they become a king — a single person with amplified influence. This is called a Sybil attack.
Traditional solutions require central identity verification: a phone number, a government ID, a biometric scan. Each of these creates a gatekeeper — which is exactly what no kings must avoid.
THE SOLUTION
Humans vouch for each other.
You know someone
You meet someone in person — a friend, a colleague, a stranger at an event. You scan their QR code or share public keys.
You attest they are real
You sign a cryptographic statement: "I vouch that [their key] belongs to a real, unique human I have met." This attestation is published on Nostr.
Trust becomes a graph
Each attestation is an edge in a social graph. A twin with 10 vouchers from already-trusted humans carries more weight than an unvouched twin.
Weight is transparent
The network aggregate is a trust-weighted average — not a simple count. Every calculation is public and auditable. No black box.
WHY NOT PHONE VERIFICATION?
PROPERTIES OF WEB OF TRUST
WHEN DOES THIS LAUNCH?
Twins are published. No trust weighting yet. Every twin counts equally — including fakes. This is acceptable at the start: the network is small and the data is exploratory.
Manual attestations via QR code scanning. Trust graph visible but not yet affecting network aggregate. Community can experiment.
Trust-weighted aggregate becomes the primary signal. Unvouched twins have reduced weight in global calculations. Web of Trust is the primary Sybil defense.