Trust score formula
The trust score is a 0–100 composite computed from four weighted inputs. These weights are hard-coded in our scoring engine and cannot be changed per-merchant.
Anti-gaming note: the best way to improve your score is to actually resolve claims. That is the intended behavior.
Trust states
The trust score maps to one of eight named states. States are evaluated in rule order — the first matching rule wins.
The internal state IDs (trusted, responsive, mixed, needs_attention, consumer_warning, under_review, improving, unrated) are used in the API and codebase. The display labels above are what users see.
Severity weights
Not all claims are equal. Claim severity affects the issue rate calculation:
An informational report does not affect the score. A severe issue counts three times as heavily as a minor one.
Confidence
Confidence is a 0–100% scale based on verified transaction volume:
Full confidence (100%) is reached at 50 verified transactions. Below 3, no trust state is assigned.
Definitions
Verified transaction
An evidence-backed transaction object in the REKKN system. A transaction must include documentation (receipt, invoice, confirmation) and pass verification level 2 or higher to count toward the score.
Published claim
A moderated public experience report tied to a verified transaction. Claims are reviewed by human moderators before publication. Only published claims affect the trust score.
Issue rate
Severity-weighted published claims divided by verified transactions. This is a fraction: 0.05 means 5% of verified transactions generated a claim. The severity weighting means one severe claim counts as much as three minor ones.
Resolution
A claim is considered resolved when the reporter confirms the issue was addressed, or when staff verifies the business provided evidence of resolution (refund, replacement, corrective action).
The denominator question
Today, REKKN computes scores from verified transactions — records where the consumer provided evidence of a real purchase or engagement. We do not yet have access to every transaction a business processes.
This means the trust score reflects patterns among people who engaged with REKKN, not a complete census of all customers. We are transparent about this limitation. As merchant integrations come online, the denominator will expand. Until then, the confidence indicator tells you how much data backs the score.
Evidence integrity — EMILIA Protocol
All uploaded evidence is anchored through the EMILIA Protocol, which creates a cryptographic fingerprint at the moment of submission. Evidence cannot be altered after the fact by anyone — not the reporter, not the business, and not REKKN — without the change being detectable.
Recalculation
Trust scores are recomputed on every trust-affecting event: a claim is published, a business responds, a resolution is confirmed, or a moderation hold changes. There is no daily batch — recomputation is event-driven. There is no manual override. There is no pay-to-improve. The trust engine source code will be published as an open-source repository.
Open questions
We are still refining: how to weight merchant-initiated positive evidence, how to handle businesses operating across multiple categories, how to normalize scores across industries with different complaint baselines, and when to introduce positive-experience ratio as a scoring input. These decisions will be documented here as they are made.