# Extending Eigentrust with the Max-Plus Algebra

## TL;DR

This paper extends the Eigentrust algorithm using Max-Plus Algebra to address convergence issues, resulting in improved trust quantification in network analysis.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel Max-Plus Algebra extension to Eigentrust, overcoming its convergence limitations and enhancing trust computation accuracy.

## Key findings

- Max-Plus extension improves trust estimation performance
- Identifies algebraic conditions affecting Eigentrust convergence
- Demonstrates empirical superiority over original Eigentrust

## Abstract

Eigentrust is a simple and widely used algorithm, which quantifies trust based on the repeated application of an update matrix to a vector of initial trust values. In some cases, however, this procedure is rendered uninformative. Here, we characterise such situations and trace their origin to the algebraic conditions guaranteeing the convergence of the Power Method. We overcome the identified limitations by extending Eigentrust's core ideas into the Max-Plus Algebra. The empirical evaluation of our max-plus approach demonstrates improvements over Eigentrust.