The RepuRate Transaction Lifecycle: From Invite to Trust Score

As RepuRate enters Alpha, we want to make it clear what actually happens behind the scenes when you use the platform. Every transaction follows a structured lifecycle designed to confirm that a real exchange occurred, capture both sides’ experience, and update trust scores in a way that reflects actual behavior over time.

Step 1: Invite Sent

The transaction lifecycle begins when one user sends an invite to the other party. RepuRate generates a unique transaction token that links the two users and the specific exchange they are confirming. This token helps prevent duplicates, mismatches, and unauthorized submissions.

Step 2: Invite Accepted

The recipient reviews the invite and confirms that the transaction is legitimate. This acceptance step ensures that both sides agree that the exchange took place or is expected to take place. Without this confirmation, the transaction cannot move forward to ratings or scoring.

Step 3: Optional Proof-of-Transaction

Once the invite is accepted, either or both parties can upload optional proof of the transaction. This might include a screenshot of a payment, a photo of the item, or other supporting evidence. While not required, these proof uploads help distinguish real, completed exchanges from vague or unverifiable claims and become especially valuable when disputes arise.

Step 4: Two-Way Rating

After the transaction is confirmed, each user rates the other based on how the exchange actually went. Rather than focusing on star ratings alone, the RepuRate model is designed to capture reliability, follow-through, and honesty. Did the buyer pay as agreed? Did the seller deliver what was promised? Did both parties communicate clearly and complete the deal?

Step 5: Fraud and Anomaly Checks

Before scores are updated, RepuRate runs basic fraud and anomaly checks on the transaction. During Alpha, these checks focus on obvious issues such as duplicate attempts, mismatched users, unusual timing patterns, and suspicious clusters of reciprocal ratings. These safeguards will become more sophisticated over time, but even now they help filter out behavior that does not look like normal, independent transactions.

Step 6: Trust-Score Update

Once the transaction passes validation, each user’s trust score is updated to reflect the new data point. Early in Alpha, this scoring model is kept intentionally simple so we can observe how it behaves with real usage. Over time, we will adjust weights to account for factors like reliability streaks, the mix of successful versus incomplete exchanges, and the diversity of counterparties.

Why This Lifecycle Matters

By enforcing a clear lifecycle from invite to trust score, RepuRate aims to make reputation something that is earned through consistent, verified behavior rather than easily gamed reviews or anonymous comments. Each step in the process adds a layer of certainty: both parties agree, evidence can be attached, anomalies are checked, and history accumulates over time. Alpha is our opportunity to fine-tune this lifecycle with real-world feedback so that, as the platform matures, users can rely on RepuRate as a trustworthy signal when deciding who to buy from, sell to, or meet with.