GPG-signing doesn't prove maliciousness, it just proves authenticity; that it was written by a particular person. The web-of-trust is used to enforce social rep

GPG-signing doesn't prove maliciousness, it just proves authenticity; that it was written by a particular person. The web-of-trust is used to enforce social reputation - if a user is malicious, their key is revoked. If a user signs up poor-quality other users, their key is revoked. Blacklists go stale and are also hard to get off if you've landed on one in error. Webs-of-trust are more work, but more robust.