By: Geeq  on Oct 22, 2024

On October 21, 2024, the FTC’s final rule banning fake reviews and testimonials came into effect. This internet phenomenon is often used to harm the reputations and sales of competitors, while benefiting others by comparison.

Consider the widespread issue of fake reviews on platforms like Amazon, where AI can easily create fake personas that post false testimonials—a process known as “review bombing.”

These new rules aim to prevent businesses from exploiting reviews. However, the challenge lies in how to effectively implement them.

As with any policy, the risk is either going too far or not far enough. These regulations seem focused on businesses that knowingly misuse reviews and influence. But how do we address the challenges of deterrence and enforcement? How can we tell the difference between a fake review and a legitimate bad experience?

Surprisingly, there is a solution. Geeq’s no-smart contract NFTs offer an easy-to-generate, verify, and implement approach.

Adopt a Customer Verification System

You may have heard of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in cryptocurrency markets. Those are generated through smart contracts, or programs of computer code which may or may not contain randomly generated elements, such as sunglasses on a profile picture.

Geeq NFTs are different. They are not generated through smart contracts. Instead, they are uniquely identified records for data, generated by a minting account. The owner of a mint account is able to issue a unique token fit for purpose. In this case, the purpose is to filter real customers’ reviews from faked reviews. The NFT serves as a type of identity token.

How it Works

When a customer makes a legitimate purchase, the business mints a verified customer token to the customer’s account. Let’s say the token is issued with a description that entitles its owner to submit a single review. All that’s required is for the business to start a mint account on a Geeq chain. If the customer does not have an account on that chain, one will be created automatically for them. All of this could be integrated into a payment system in the background, so there is no extra work involved at the point of sale.

Now a website hosting reviews has a way to distinguish verified customers (those who have a verified customer token in their account) versus a person who is paid to write fake reviews. When the customer wishes to leave a review, the “cost” is the token must be transferred out of their account. In other words, a step is included where the website checks the blockchain to see if the token is in their account and asks the reviewer to send it, perhaps to a burn (disposal) account. With the right wallet, it could be as easy for the customer as pressing a “confirm” key.

Verifiable Accounting Without Biasing the Results

Notice a verified customer may still leave a bad review. Issuing the token does not force the customer to say anything they do not want to say. The business has no control once the token is handed to another account. In fact, this system may be set up so the business never knows what the customer says. This lack of control over someone else is a feature of permissionless systems.

Because there are no strings attached, the customer is free to say what they want. Whatever the reviews are, they are legitimate to the extent that an ID was required. To leave a fake review, the reviewer would have to go to the trouble of tracking down a real customer’s accounts and arrange to purchase their token.

Has Geeq helped solve a problem? Yes. Ethical businesses and well-run platforms now have a way to prove to the FTC they did not solicit or sanction fake reviews by showing the ledger of accounts, which tracks the provenance of the review token (issued by the business) to an account (a legitimate customer), to the burn or disposal account. On Geeq, each of these transfers can only happen if the sender had the authority to send the token to the next account.

Without a verification system, it is always hard to prove a negative. Ethical businesses could not prove they have been review bombed if they do not have a way to prove the reviews did not come from their customers.

If regulators insist, all the documentation is verifiable on-chain.

Summary:

The precision and ease of blockchain self-policing offer clear incentives for businesses, consumers, and regulators alike. It’s a far better approach than navigating the new rules in the dark.

These verification systems are easy to set up, easy to reuse, and simple for all involved. Geeq can make access to the system available to mobile and webapps through an API.

If you are a business or regulator looking to stay ahead of the curve, please contact compliance@geeq.io for more information.