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Sounds like there is a market for Glassdoor competitors that leverage self-sovereign identity and zero-knowledge proofs. Such reviews are probably THE killer a

• smt88 4y ago
  That would immediately turn into a situation where people smear businesses they don't like. As an individual, I could post 1,000 bad reviews instead of just 1. As a competitor, I could do the same. Glassdoor just wouldn't work if they couldn't verify someone's identity somehow.
  • k__ 4y ago
    Is this the case? If you have ZK verifiable credentials it would be rather hard to create all these identities and get them verified.
    • blep_ 4y ago
      No it wouldn't? You're confusing ZKPs with having identities tied to a real-world person.
      • k__ 4y ago
        This is what verifiable credentials are about.
        • smt88 4y ago
          Glassdoor could not verify credentials without unmasking the user. There is no zero-knowledge way to accomplish this.
          • k__ 4y ago
            They could verify that it's a real person without knowing which person.
            • smt88 4y ago
              How? Please be specific. What would the user send to Glassdoor and how would Glassdoor use it to prove that the user is a single, living human?
              • smt88 4y ago
                I see this discussion ends where all crypto/Web3 proponents end it: discussion of specifics. Crypto seems to be great when waving problems away, but no one seems to be able to give implementation details.
                • k__ 4y ago
                  What's the missing detail here? There are a bunch of authorities that proof you're a human already. They give you passport and the like. There is nothing prohibiting them from giving you a verifiable credential in addition of a passport. Also, there are services that proof your humanity all over the internet. Letting them give out verifiable credentials and asking Glassdoor to accept them as trusted credential issuer is the easy part here. Glassdoor can either check the signature of such a credential or, in the ZKP case, you proof them that you have such a credential without revealing it.
                  • blep_ 4y ago
                    > Letting them give out verifiable credentials and asking Glassdoor to accept them as trusted credential issuer is the easy part here. Getting people to adopt your thing is the hard part. The rest is just PKI, we know how to do PKI.
                  • smt88 4y ago
                    > There are a bunch of authorities that proof you're a human already. They give you passport and the like. There is nothing prohibiting them from giving you a verifiable credential in addition of a passport. Except they don't do that today, at least in Glassdoor's biggest market (the US). And anyway, all you prove with a credential is that the person is holding a valid credential. You have no idea if it was stolen. If you used social security numbers for this, for example, a single person could have posted millions of reviews on Glassdoor. > Also, there are services that proof your humanity all over the internet. Which ones? The only services that do this are the government and credit bureaus, so the digital services all have to tie in to one of those things. That means that someone is getting your real identity, which doesn't prevent the type of subpoena we're talking about in this case. And on top of that, those identity checks can be anywhere from $1 to $20. There's no way Glassdoor would survive that.
        • deleted 4y ago
          [deleted]
• endymi0n 4y ago
  Sounds like still too many techies believe a technical solution is automatically a great business case.
  • shreyshnaccount 4y ago
    would be so cool if it was though
• NAHWheatCracker 4y ago
  There's no market for Glassdoor competitors because the only people with money to throw at the market is employers who want to protect their brand. I would love for a trustworthy Glassdoor-like source, but I think there isn't a business plan that justifies the cost of building the network that doesn't also have the end goal being selling out to the employers.
  • yreg 4y ago
    How about a non-profit alternative?
  • maerF0x0 4y ago
    This is where business mindset could really help working class people. I'll illustrate with a personal anecdote, recently I was looking at levels.fyi negotiation service, and I thought to myself $1800 seems way over priced! but then it dawned on me, so long the EROI is > $1800 in better offers, then I might as well use it, right? For what workers lack in individual power, they overwhelm in aggregate value, if a service could provide positive value on $10 a month to a lot of workers they could make bank. Would you pay $10 a month to 1. Have a better manager 2. Get paid a high percentage of your true maximal value 3. Avoid companies that require therapy during/after the fact 4. Increase your inter-company mobility reducing periods of unemployment An ideal glassdoor should be able to provide this. As I write this out I kind of realize this is kind of like a market solution to unions.
• adenozine 4y ago
  Peak HN. The underlying problem is corporate overreach and cultural creep into dare I say, fascistic practices against workers. Workers in America are constantly trodden on. There’s no module to import here, the culture is bad and the laws are weak and more and more people are realizing it. It should be legal, protected speech to speak ill of a company. They aren’t people, they’re not even really objects from a certain point of view. If you ask me, there’s a different sort of “zero knowledge” problem happening here.
  • MichaelCollins 4y ago
    > The underlying problem is corporate overreach and cultural creep into dare I say, fascistic practices against workers. Workers in America are constantly trodden on. In New Zealand too, right? The company doing the suing is in New Zealand, not America, and the worker probably is too.
    • adenozine 4y ago
      I phrased it that way so as not to speak beyond my knowledge. I'm sure workers are relatively trodden on everywhere, in various magnitudes.
      • chitowneats 4y ago
        "I assume workers are relatively trodden on everywhere based on nothing other than my personal bias and political leanings" Fixed it for you.
  • shreyshnaccount 4y ago
    Peak HN, everything is about America.
  • spaetzleesser 4y ago
    “It should be legal, protected speech to speak ill of a company. They aren’t people, they’re not even really objects from a certain point of view.” In some ways they have it better than people. All the rights but don’t get punished in a meaningful way when they do wrong.
• aqme28 4y ago
  What do ZKPs add to this? You're just talking about a database that companies can't interfere with, right?
  • k__ 4y ago
    With a verifiable credential that is ZKP-able, you could ensure the system is not gamed while alsp ensuring the reviewers aren't doxd.
• aaomidi 4y ago
  One example is not a market, one example is the need for legislation.
• upupandup 4y ago
  You could've ended with the first half of the sentence. The other stuff you mentioned is not needed.
  • k__ 4y ago
    How come?
• dalbasal 4y ago
  IDK.. What's the advantage over say, HN's ID system. The problems here aren't technical. These are legal issues. Issues with Glassdoor's business model.
  • k__ 4y ago
    If Glassdoor could verify without needing to know everything about a person, it could trust in the reviews while not being able to dox them even when forced.