In brief
- TRI asks whether the economy can be trusted and whether it will endure.
- Five indicators each guard against a different kind of failure.
- It is the hardest dimension to measure, which is a reason to publish its method carefully.
Production and participation describe what an economy is doing. The Trust & Resilience Index asks a different question: can it be trusted, and will it endure?
TRI measures the integrity, reliability and capacity of the economy to sustain participation and withstand disruption. Potential underlying indicators include verification integrity, settlement reliability, participant continuity, economic stability and institutional resilience.
| Indicator | Failure it guards against |
|---|---|
| Verification integrity | Records at the base of the economy that cannot be relied on |
| Settlement reliability | Value that does not move when and how it should |
| Participant continuity | People who join and then leave |
| Economic stability | Conditions too unpredictable to plan around |
| Institutional resilience | Shocks (technical, financial or reputational) that break the system |
Each points to a different kind of failure. Verification integrity concerns whether the records at the base of the economy can be relied on. Settlement reliability concerns whether value moves when and how it should. Participant continuity concerns whether people who join, stay. Economic stability concerns whether conditions are predictable enough to plan around. Institutional resilience concerns whether the system can absorb shocks — technical, financial or reputational — without breaking.
TRI is the hardest of the three SSI™ dimensions to measure, because trust is partly a judgement and resilience is often proven only under stress. That difficulty is not a reason to avoid measuring it. It is a reason to publish the method carefully and to state plainly which indicators are measured directly and which are assessed.
For an institution whose stated aim is to endure across generations, TRI may be the number that matters most over time.
“For an institution that intends to endure across generations, TRI may be the number that matters most over time.”
— From this article