“Trust” Between Machines? Establishing Identity Between Humans and Software Code.
By Stephen Mason and Timothy Reiniger
This is an article exploring the concept of trust in relation to software code in commercial use, and the relevance in understanding the nature of the trust imparted to software in the context of establishing identity in the digital world. We conclude that, in the machine-space of the digital environment, the concept of creditworthiness developed in the Law Merchant is a useful historical and legal model for enabling trust, and in so doing, for providing a greater degree of reliance on the trust that can be placed on software code, because of the legal implications that follow—or ought to follow.
In the global networked information economy, it is important that individuals be given the evidentiary means to assert their informational rights in a system of assured value, in a similar manner that exists with trust based on various forms of credit exchange today. Identity—and therefore a greater degree of trust attributed to software code—is the emerging new credit in the information age, and, we argue, the law should take cognizance of this.
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