Adding security and privacy to agents acting in a marketplace: a trust model

A general trust model for secure electronic agent-based marketplaces is described. The trust is presented as a dimensional space covering from physical security to high level trust relationships. A specific scenario has been chosen to show an implementation of the trust model: a secure multi-agent marketplace designed to manage resources in future mobile communications networks (J. Bigham et al., 2000). The multi-agent system is being developed as part of the IST SHUFFLE project (http://www.ist-shuffle.org).