With the introduction of trusted digital identities, social credit systems are reaching the West.

The tagline of many digital identity advertisements is "At the heart of all digital identity is trust." But what does that even mean?

One current definition of trust is that it is "a confident relationship with the unknown."

According to Mastercard:

"Digital identity is a collage of up-to-date digital data that defines an individual, dynamic, multipurpose, and reusable, a system for verifying information to establish eligibility to access a service, perform a task, or receive a benefit, resulting from a dynamic network of distributed, data sources (such as financial institutions, mobile network providers, governments) that verifies identity in real time."

Digital identity solutions are being rolled out under the title "Trusted Digital Identity", which enables people, businesses, and governments to have confidence in digital interactions.

At both ends of the interaction, digital identity is about establishing confidence and trust. Both parties must be confident that the other party is who they claim to be. Both require trust in the system that mediates the interaction.