Trust and anonymity

Another function of giftmoots is as institutions of trust and anonymity. In general, need trust to have resources allocated to them, while they need anonymity in order not to be discriminated against for either historical or identity-related reasons. As a type of aggregating institution, giftmoots can afford anonymity to their members while generating trust through their institutional behaviours and principles.

When a giftmoot considers the business plan for potential investment, they are discerning, in part, how trustworthy the plan and the actor behind it are. They want to back reasonable, beneficial and successful plans. Similarly, when the giftmoot reaches out to their network connections to obtain the resources, they will largely be prioritised on the basis of trust - that they have reasonably scrutinised the plan and the benefits. If the project is successful, the reputation of the giftmoot would increase, but if it is not successful, the giftmoot might be seen as an institution that does not know how to judge viability and then may have more trouble obtaining resources in the future.

However, if reputation is the basis for allocation, then poor history would effectively prevent an actor from gaining future opportunities and allocation. A person who had a terrible business plan might have such a poor reputation that they find it impossible to have a second chance. A person who has a poor personal reputation for other reasons might find that a giftmoot doesn’t want to prioritise allocation to them. History is not the only reason that discrimination might occur - another possibility is identity, where a person might be excluded or deprioritised because of their sexuality, gender, ethnicity, religion or for other reasons.

The giftmoot can address this issue as well, by anonymising its members when they make requests, establish equitable and just principles through democratic means, produce investment opportunities, and so forth. As the giftmoot is a middle-man, it can process requests from members without the supplier knowing the exact end-consumer, and without other members of the giftmoot necessarily knowing exactly which resources were allocated to whom. The plurality of giftmoots also allows people to move from giftmoot to giftmoot if they require a fresh start, allowing them opportunities to build up their reputations again.

Anonymity and trust, though in tension with each other, are essential for non-discriminatory but reasonable resource allocation, and allow people to operate privately while also providing clear, publicly available feedback on performance.