The Coherence Ledger: A Time-Weighted Integrity Scoring Protocol for Individuals, Organizations, and Institutions

Abstract

This white paper introduces the Coherence Ledger, a decentralized and time-weighted integrity scoring system designed to evaluate individuals and organizations based on long-term behavioral patterns rather than short-term claims.It critiques existing trust systems—including online reviews, credit scoring, and professional directories—as structurally vulnerable to manipulation, opacity, retaliation, and extraction incentives.The framework proposes a transparent scoring protocol combining behavioral events, exponential time decay, decentralized identity verification, and peer-based trust propagation to create measurable coherence scores.It integrates technologies such as decentralized identifiers (DIDs), Soulbound Tokens, and web-of-trust mechanisms to reduce gaming, increase accountability, and preserve auditability across digital systems.Positioned as post-extractive trust infrastructure, the work outlines how the Coherence Ledger could support hiring, finance, media verification, and institutional risk analysis by making extraction visible and rewarding sustained coherent behavior over time.