Crypto Trust Score Algorithm
The Crypto Trust Score is a proprietary algorithm that rates Web3 projects on a scale of 0-100 using real-time data from multiple sources.
🧮 The 4-Pillar Formula
Trust Score = Treasury (30%) + Dev Activity (30%) + Financials (25%) + Community (15%)
Each pillar is scored 0-100, then weighted and combined.
📊 Pillar 1: Treasury Health (30%)
What it measures: Financial stability and protocol value locked.
Scoring Logic
| Metric | Condition | Points |
|---|---|---|
| TVL Size | greater than $10B | +30 |
| greater than $1B | +20 | |
| greater than $100M | +10 | |
| less than $100M | +0 | |
| MCap/TVL Ratio | 0.1 - 0.5 (sweet spot) | +20 |
| outside range | +0 | |
| Base Score | 50 |
Example
Aave:
- TVL: $32.4B → +30 points
- MCap/TVL: 0.09 → +20 points (efficient)
- Base: 50
- Treasury Score: 100 → weighted contribution: 30
📊 Pillar 2: Developer Activity (30%)
What it measures: GitHub commit activity and team size.
Scoring Logic
| Metric | Condition | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Commits (30d) | greater than 100 | +30 |
| greater than 50 | +20 | |
| greater than 10 | +10 | |
| 0 commits | See Blue-chip logic | |
| Active Developers | greater than 10 | +20 |
| greater than 5 | +10 | |
| 0 devs | See Blue-chip logic | |
| Base Score | 50 |
Blue-Chip Detection
Problem: Mature protocols (Aave, Uniswap) have low commit activity because they're stable, not dead.
Solution: Detect blue-chip projects and apply neutral scoring:
is_blue_chip = tvl > $1B or market_cap > $1B
if commits == 0:
if is_blue_chip:
score = 55 # Neutral (stable, mature project)
else:
score -= 40 # Penalty (dead/abandoned project)
Example
Polkadot:
- Commits: 100+ → +30 points
- Active devs: 15+ → +20 points
- Base: 50
- Dev Score: 100 → weighted contribution: 30
Aave (Blue-chip):
- Commits: Low (mature protocol)
- Blue-chip detected: TVL $32B ✓
- Dev Score: 55 (neutral) → weighted contribution: 16.5
📊 Pillar 3: Financials (25%)
What it measures: Token economics and inflation risk.
Scoring Logic
| Metric | Condition | Points |
|---|---|---|
| MCap/FDV Ratio | greater than 0.8 | +30 (low inflation) |
| 0.5 - 0.8 | +15 | |
| 0.2 - 0.5 | +0 | |
| less than 0.2 | -30 (high inflation risk) | |
| Runway | greater than 18 months | +20 |
| 12-18 months | +10 | |
| less than 12 months | +0 | |
| Base Score | 50 |
Example
Polkadot:
- MCap/FDV: 0.85 → +30 points
- Base: 50
- Financials Score: 80 → weighted contribution: 20
📊 Pillar 4: Community (15%)
What it measures: Social presence and engagement quality.
Current Status
Currently a placeholder with neutral score (65) pending integration of:
- TwitterScore API (bot detection)
- Discord/Telegram analysis
- Sentiment scoring
Planned Scoring
| Metric | Condition | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Real Followers | greater than 80% real | +30 |
| 50-80% real | +15 | |
| less than 50% real (bots) | -30 | |
| Engagement Rate | greater than 5% | +20 |
| 1-5% | +10 | |
| less than 1% | +0 |
🚦 Risk Level Mapping
| Score Range | Risk Level | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80-100 | LOW | 🟢 Green | Established, trusted protocol |
| 60-79 | MEDIUM | 🟡 Yellow | Solid project, some concerns |
| 40-59 | HIGH | 🟠 Orange | Elevated risk, investigate |
| 0-39 | CRITICAL | 🔴 Red | Significant red flags |
📈 Real Example Scores
| Project | Trust Score | Risk | Treasury | Dev | Financials | Community |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polkadot | 81 | LOW | N/A | 100 | 80 | 65 |
| Aave | 70 | MEDIUM | 100 | 55 | 80 | 65 |
| Uniswap | 63 | MEDIUM | 70 | 55 | 70 | 65 |
Polkadot Analysis
- High score (81): Very active development, strong financials
- Why not 90+? Community pillar is placeholder (65)
Aave Analysis
- Medium score (70): Blue-chip DeFi with massive TVL
- Why not higher? Low recent commits (stable protocol, not actively developed)
- Blue-chip logic applied: didn't penalize for low activity
Uniswap Analysis
- Medium score (63): Mature DEX with moderate activity
- Blue-chip detected: TVL $4.2B, MCap $3.8B
🔄 Score Recalculation
Trust Scores are recalculated when:
- Manual refresh - User clicks refresh button or API call
- Stale data - Automatic refresh if data is older than 24 hours
- New project - First-time fetch triggers full calculation
Caching Strategy
- CoinGecko data: 24 hours (price changes frequently but TTL acceptable)
- GitHub data: 24 hours (commits don't change rapidly)
- DefiLlama data: 6 hours (TVL can change faster)
🚀 Roadmap: 5-Pillar Score
The next evolution will add Tokenomics as the 5th pillar:
5-Pillar = Treasury (20%) + Tokenomics (20%) + Dev (20%) + Financials (20%) + Community (20%)
Tokenomics Pillar (Planned)
- Data Source: CryptoRank API/scraping
- Metrics:
- Upcoming token unlocks
- Vesting schedules
- Insider allocation %
- VC investor quality (a16z = +points)
The Crypto Trust Score algorithm is continuously refined based on market feedback and new data sources.