“In fact, Bitcoin does not use reputation at all.  It sees the network as just a big crowd and doesn't much care who it talks to or who tells it something, as long as at least one of them relays the information being broadcast around the network. It doesn't care because there's no way to lie to it.  Either you tell it crypto proof of something, or it
ignores you.”

Satoshi

[from the Satoshi-Sirius emails]