Trust is a basic human emotion that helps us discern, make sense of and prioritise our world and those around us.

Since our existence we have taken our trust cues from our tribe, our elders, our families and our friends, all others outside of this default circle have had to earn, gain and maintain trust knowing it was fragile and once broken was difficult, if not impossible, to earn back.

Trust was hard enough when we could look each other in the eye, but now that we’ve on-boarded our lives into a digital world, where our cyber reach goes beyond our physical network and where we are constantly called on to meet virtual strangers and assess their reputation, opportunities and offerings all with any historical or clan reference or network to base it on.

The sharing economy, that allows us to barter with strangers for goods, services and tasks is a prime example of where the need for trust is imperative, but where our old trust formulas and methods don’t quite work and neither do the new artificial user rating systems.

In this week’s on-air chat with ABC Far North’s Phil Staley and I explore the notion of the sharing economy, what it is and raft of examples of what we can ” share” as well as the trust economy, and how digital reputation is built and maintained and why reputation is the ultimate personal currency of the near future and beyond.

Listen now (11 mins 20 secs)…