The web of trust is fundamentally flawed and for very simple reasons. First of all, the WoT is based on belief networks. What is a belief? Is it based on a pro

The web of trust is fundamentally flawed and for very simple reasons. First of all, the WoT is based on belief networks. What is a belief? Is it based on a probability? Is it binary? Can we believe something negatively? Whatever it is, we know it is subjective and difficult to define quantitively. Second of all, even when formally specifying a belief using a certain quantity, we need to calculate transitive beliefs (person A beliefs with certainty x the identity of person B, C and D, who each believe with certainty y the identity of person E and A). This requires doing some matrix inversions for which the whole matrix needs to be known. However, who do we trust to provide us with the matrix? If I can provide the matrix, I can also tamper by adding extra nodes, thus shifting trust towards nodes I control. We can provide the matrix in a distributed fashion, but how do we prove completeness? Then there is a temporal aspect to WoT which is hard to tackle. I might have a belief now, but that does not entail I will belief it tomorrow. Without a continuous stream of events on a subject, the precision of my beliefs are always diminishing. However, the current WoT networks do not take this fully into account (or transitive beliefs for that matter).