( CNN ) -- Today 's world increasingly challenges us to think differently about value and money . How important is your reputation ? Does it have an impact on your finances ? What is the currency of reputation and is it transferable or exchangeable ? How is reputation created ? Reputation is co-created by individuals having experiences . Looking for a great Italian restaurant for dinner tonight ? Search Yelp reviews and see what people who have already dined at a place have to say about it . Want to know what it 's like to work with a potential hire ? Read their LinkedIn referrals . Wondering whether or not other people are happy with a product you 're about to buy ? Amazon reviews will tell you . You 've probably even shared your own experiences with something you enjoyed or warned others about a less-than-positive experience . Your FICO score in the United States measures your credit risk , which is really credit reputation , based on your behavior . Reputation is crucial for the new economics of the 'Sharing Economy ' Reputation is a requirement of the sharing economy . For Airbnb hosts and Uber and Lyft drivers , positive ratings are paramount to their success . It might seem crazy to stay at a stranger 's house , but on Airbnb host reviews facilitate trust among strangers . Your AirBnB , Yelp and eBay reviews have immense values outside their immediate platforms . Even though these reputation systems have been created for the specific company -- imagine how powerful it would be to have your reputation in one place . Uber and Lyft are both independent operator ride-sharing platforms . Both companies facilitate the connection between driver and passenger . Drivers must be reviewed and approved before giving rides through their system . In a move to gain more drivers and compete with Lyft , Uber reportedly offered bonuses to tempt already-approved Lyft drivers to the Uber platform . In some cases , it was apparently easier for a new driver to go through the Lyft approval process and then switch companies , than it was to apply directly to Uber . Reputation and the future . Reputation will become an increasingly visible part of our everyday transactions . While we will create reputation on individual platforms , there will be an increasing demand for fluid exchange of reputation and ratings from one system to another . We 'll see tools to aggregate your reputation in one place . We may even see reputation system APIs developed to enable the transfer of your reputation to new platforms . Picture this : four friends having dinner in a restaurant in the not-too-distant future . After the meal , they pay using a `` Smart Check , '' using integrated mobile payments , credit cards and private coins . As part of the Smart Check experience , diners can rate their experience immediately -- everything from individual dishes , the service , and even the restaurant itself . Or how about this -- it 's the year 2020 and a woman is searching for a motorcycle at an online classified site . As part of her search results , the seller 's reputation is shown . This makes it easy to decide which seller to deal with . Beyond these scenarios , expect to see more fluid exchange of reputation between their original systems -- akin to monetary exchanges . We 'll see more of personal reputation integrated in person-to-person transactions , which will enable deeper transactions in the resource sharing economy . This is an excerpt of a report on reputation currencies , written by Heather Schlegel and commissioned by the Institute of Customer Experience . You can download the full report here . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Heather Schlegel .
Trust is crucial to the new ` ` Sharing " , '' argues Heather Smith . Airbnb , Uber , Lyft and eBay all depend on trust . He says it will soon be transferable from one platform to another .