Professional Documents
Culture Documents
FYP Proposal
Gamification of Trust:
by
WONG Siu Fai, LAO Haoran, AGARWAL Anish and MENDOZA John Paul
LDG2
Advised by
in the
2020-2021
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LDG2 FYP – Gamification of Trust: HKUST Social Credit System
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LDG2 FYP – Gamification of Trust: HKUST Social Credit System
Table of Contents
1 Introduction........................................................................................................................4
1.1 Overview 4
1.2 Objectives 7
1.3 Literature Survey 9
2 Methodology.....................................................................................................................14
2.1 Design 14
2.2 Implementation 17
2.3 Testing 19
2.4 Evaluation 21
3 Project Planning................................................................................................................22
3.1 Distribution of Work 22
3.2 GANTT Chart 23
4 Required Hardware & Software........................................................................................24
4.1 Hardware24
4.2 Software 24
5 References.........................................................................................................................25
6 Appendix A: Meeting Minutes..........................................................................................27
6.1 Minutes of the 1st Project Meeting 27
6.2 Minutes of the 2nd Project Meeting 28
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1 Introduction
1.1 Overview
Standardized Scoring Systems
In the 20th Century, retail banks in western countries began using credit scores to quantify the
degree of risk in lending money to clients. These personal credit scores are usually based on a
combination of factors, like a person’s debt repayment history, amount of debt relative to
credit limits and how long he or she has had credit [1]. Similarly, standardized tests, like SAT,
TOEFL and IELTS, have become a vital part of universities’ selection process for student
admission. Thus, we can see that in today’s digital era, more and more institutions are using
standardized scoring systems to rate people for various purposes. Although many people
argue against such systems, the reality is that they will probably only become more and more
Gamification
In recent years, more and more software applications have been incorporating game principles
In recent years, the Chinese government has been developing a Social Credit System (社會信
用體系) for Chinese citizens [2] that uses gamification to rate its citizens in terms of their
trustworthiness in various areas. Pilot schemes have already been implemented in different
forms in several large cities in China. Citizens can earn points for what the government
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considers to be good behavior, such as helping take care of disabled people and donating to
college funds for poor students [3]. They can also lose points for certain types of behavior that
the government considers to be bad, such as financial fraud, malicious evasion of bank debts
and insider trading [2]. Higher scores can merit some rewards or being put on a redlist for
things like discounts on energy bills and higher interest rates at banks, and lower scores can
cause some penalties or being put on a blacklist for things like securing loans or traveling on
China’s ZTE Corporation has helped Venezuela develop its own social credit system, which
allows Venezuelans to use their “fatherland cards” to receive subsidized food and health care
[4]. Germany is also considering having a social credit system in the future [5]. Thus,
although China is the current leader in the implementation of social credit systems, it appears
that the world is watching and that other countries will eventually follow its lead.
The China State Council has announced that it wants qualified universities develop social
credit theory and promote social credit management disciplines. The intention is to include
the establishment of credit management majors and relevant courses, as well as research and
In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in China, the Alipay Health Code application is
being rolled out nationwide and is already in use in 200 cities [6]. The app assigns a color
code — green, yellow or red — that indicates users’ health status. After users fill in a form on
Alipay with personal details, the software generates a QR code in one of these three colors. A
green code enables the user to move about unrestricted on public transport. Someone with a
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yellow or red code may not be allowed to use public transport. The software developer says it
uses big data to draw automated conclusions about whether someone is a contagion risk.
Similar technologies are being discussed in the U.S., like “wellness passes” and “digital
health passports” [7] and “contact tracing technology” [8]. Regardless of whether these
technologies are effective or not or whether they are helpful or harmful to individuals and
society in the long term, they seem to be gaining momentum, especially with Bill Gates,
Such systems could one day be merged with the other systems – like credit systems in western
countries or the social credit system of China. Since China is the leader in the implementation
of a lot of many new technologies, it may well be beta testing social credit systems and digital
Although, no plans have been announced yet for a social credit system or digital health
passport system in Hong Kong, these systems are likely to arrive sooner or later. Therefore, in
our final year project, we are developing a social credit system for the HKUST community,
including students, faculty, staff and all family members living in campus housing. But it is
how a social credit system might be designed and implemented in an equitable manner
what life might be like for people who (for whatever reason) find themselves to be
considered “untrustworthy.”
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1.2 Objectives
The goal of this project is to design and implement a small-scale social credit system for
members of the HKUST community. Our system will use gamification to rate students,
faculty, staff and family members living in campus housing in terms of their trustworthiness
in various areas.
1. Build a database that consolidates social credit data and facilitates data sharing between
departments.
3. Develop a blacklisting system that includes blacklists (for bad behavior) to motivate
compliance with existing behavioral codes and redlists (for good behavior) to motivate
(It’s called a blacklisting system, because China’s Social Credit System focuses on
penalties more than rewards, since most laws are made for law breakers.) Being on either
a blacklist or redlist will have varying time durations, like one week, one month, one year
or permanent.
4. Develop a punishment and reward system that will enable the university to penalize
those community members with bad credit records and reward those with good credit
records. Both punishments and rewards will have varying time durations, like one week,
one month, one year or permanent. We will think carefully how to make this system fair.
HKUST community members to take the tests and get the vaccinations. Although we do
not believe that these tests and vaccinations are necessarily effective or safe, we will
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incorporate penalties for those who for whatever reason opt out and possibly link these
penalties to one or more blacklists. This is not because we think that such penalties are
appropriate, but because we are realistic and see them as highly likely in the future [6,7,8].
Although opting out is a legitimate personal choice, it will most likely result some degree
of inconvenience to those who do so. Thus, this feature will help us observe how people
who opt out respond and adapt to restrictions in their lifestyles and activities.
6. Develop a user interface (UI) for community members. This UI will be web-based and
user friendly. It will allow community members to check their personal social credit
scores and see if they or other members are on any blacklists or redlists.
7. Develop a UI for administrators. This UI will also be web-based and user friendly, and
The biggest challenges we expect to face will be developing the credit sharing system to
collect information from various university departments and designing a fair punishment and
reward system. To address these challenges, we will work closely with the Academic Registry
Office (ARO) and other departments, and we will carefully study the implementation of social
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years. Children and people under authority tend to dislike punishment and like rewards, but
both punishments and rewards are nevertheless part of every family, every institution and
every society. To understand digitized and gamified social credit systems, we studied three
systems in China that have already been implemented and tested. These are discussed below.
standards and contracts, and the goal is to somehow establish of a culture of integrity
and the promote the traditional virtue of integrity. Using reward and punishment
mechanisms, it is designed to improve the integrity awareness and credit level of the
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The first phase included the development of a Credit Information Basic Database and
corporate credit database and a natural person credit database. It is connected to the
provincial credit information center and the data of 26 municipal departments. More
than 13.3 million pieces of corporate credit information were cleaned, covering more
than 360,000 industrial and commercial households and more than 560,000 taxpayers.
The natural person credit information database covers 13 million people and contains
opened 78 project information and credit information sharing offices in the field of
engineering construction, and it has released 23,625 project information items and
304,000 project credit information items. So far, 500 cases bad behavior of legal persons
have been reported, and employee misbehavior cases have totaled 125. The entire
project has successfully built multiple networks for data exchange that interface with
each other. This ensures automatic pushing and collection of information between
intermediaries registered with the Municipal Credit Office. They utilize credit
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Although the system has advance significantly, certain tasks are still under development,
and some problems need to be resolved. For example, the development of departments
is not balanced, the departmental linkage mechanism has not yet been established, the
application of credit products needs to be further expanded, and the credit service
system is not yet developed. It also needs some enhancements to help Suzhou compete
The system needs to promote more government integrity, business integrity, and social
integrity. It is hoped that in cooperation with judicial credibility development, the social
credit system will promote a culture of honesty that is suitable for China's national
conditions and that reflects Suzhou's unique characteristics. For government integrity,
the system will strengthen social supervision and restraint on the operation of power
For business integrity, it will focus on food, medicine and daily consumer goods,
market bans and exit systems. It will also promote credit construction in industries such
strictly investigating and dealing with dishonest behavior, such as manufacturing and
selling fakes, pyramid schemes, false advertising, shoddy products, service breaches, etc.
It will also include an early warning of credit risks. For financial institutions, it will
severely crack down on financial fraud, malicious evasion of bank debts, insider trading,
production and sale of fake insurance policies, fraudulent insurance and compensation,
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For citizens, it will also establish a blacklist system to crack down on dishonest acts, such
as tax evasion and improve taxpayers' compliance with tax laws, and it will strengthen
the standardization of price behavior and improve the transparency of pricing policies.
The Rongcheng Social Credit Center (荣成市社会信用中心) is a website with public access
to social credit information in the city of Rongcheng [11]. It has been under development for
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Alibaba’s Séseme Credit System (芝麻信用) provides services to Alibaba users [12].
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2 Methodology
2.1 Design
The Design Phase of the project started in early July, and we will continue working on the
following aspects:
We will carefully study three social credit systems in China to understand how they store data
Our database will consolidate social credit data and facilitate data sharing between university
(ER diagram) for our database. The ER diagram will help us design a stable and efficient
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The credit sharing system will collect information from various university departments.
The blacklisting system includes blacklists (for bad behavior) to motivate compliance with
existing behavioral codes and redlists (for good behavior) to motivate community members to
go beyond their normal responsibilities to enhance campus life. Being on either a blacklist or
redlist will have varying time durations, like one week, one month, one year or permanent.
The punishment and reward system will enable the university to penalize those community
members with bad credit records and reward those with good credit records. Both
punishments and rewards will have varying time durations, like one week, one month, one
year or permanent. We will consult various stakeholders and think carefully how to do this so
as to balance the different views and beliefs of members of the HKUST community.
incentives for HKUST community members to take the tests and get the vaccinations. For
example, people who opt out may be put on a blacklist for use of the fitness center or
swimming pool. We will consult various stakeholders and think carefully how to do this so as
to balance the different views and beliefs of members of the HKUST community. During beta
testing, we will observe how those who opt out of testing and vaccination respond and adapt
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The community member UI will be web-based and user friendly. It will allow community
members to check their personal social credit scores and see if they or other members are on
The administrator UI will also be web-based and user friendly, and it will allow administrators
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2.2 Implementation
The Implementation Phase will include the following aspects:
Based on our ER diagram, we will use My SQL to build our social credit database. It must …
Based on our design, we will use [some tools] to develop a system that automatically collects
Based on our design, we will use [some tools] to develop blacklists to motivate compliance
with existing behavioral codes and redlists to motivate community members to go beyond
Based on our design, we will use [some tools] to develop the punishment and reward system.
Based on our design, we will use [some tools] to develop mechanisms to provide incentives
Based on our design, we will use Bootstrap to develop the community member UI.
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Based on our design, we will use Bootstrap to develop the administrator UI.
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2.3 Testing
During the development process, unit testing will be done to ensure all modules are built
correctly. System integration testing will be done after we have built all the components and
combined them into the application. We will test the database, each module and the user
interfaces.
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2.4 Evaluation
After we have finished all the testing, we will evaluate the system to check whether it fulfills
2. Does the credit sharing system interface well with all data sources?
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3 Project Planning
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● Leader ○ Assistant
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4.1 Hardware
Development PC: PC with MS Windows 10 or later
Minimum Display Resolution: 1024 * 768 with 16 bit color
Server PC: PC with 1TB hard drive
4.2 Software
MySQL For our database
JAVA, JavaScript, PHP Programming languages
…
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5 References
of the Outline of the Social Credit System Construction Plan (2014-2020)." Available:
http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2014-06/27/ content_8913.htm
[3] A. Ma. "China's controversial social credit system isn't just about punishing people —
here's what you can do to get rewards, from special discounts to better hotel rooms."
[4] A. Berwick. "Venezuela is rolling out a new ID card manufactured in China that can
[5] C. Schaer. "Germany edges toward Chinese-style rating of citizens." Handelsblatt Today.
https://www.handelsblatt.com/english/politics/big-data-vs- big-brother-germany-edges-
[6] P. Mozur, R. Zhong and A. Krolik. "In Coronavirus Fight, China Gives Citizens a Color
[7] GreatGameIndia. "Trust Stamp – Bill Gates Funded Program That Will Create Your
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[8] J. Guynn. "Apple and Google release coronavirus contact tracing technology for public
2020/05/20/apple-and-google-release-coronavirus-contact-tracing-mobile-app-
http://socialcredit.triviumchina.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Understanding-Chinas-
https://www.creditchina.gov.cn/zhengcefagui/zhengcefagui/
2020).
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3. Discussion items
3.1 Prof. Lao said that the goal of project is basically to try to develop a small-scale social
credit system for the HKUST community, including students, faculty, staff and all
family members living in campus housing. It is only a proof of concept. There are no
plans to actually implement such a system.
3.2 The project plan needs to include a list of the main tasks, who will work on each task
and a GANTT chart.
3.3 Prof. Lao showed us a few examples of pilot systems that are already in use in
Mainland China and suggested that we choose three and analyze them closely.
3.4 He also gave us some reading materials to understand social credit systems and the
goals of the China State Council.
3.5 He recommended that we try to find the best development tools available.
3.6 He said that we should try to arrange meetings with ARR and other departments to
gather the data needed for the database.
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3.7 All four team members will be having internships this summer and won’t be able to
spend much time on the project.
3.8 Prof. Lao said that that is okay, but we should try to meet at least once per month as a
team and try to start the literature survey.
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2.3 Siu Fai tried contacted ARR to see if we can set up a meeting about gathering the data
needed for the database, but the person in charge is on annual leave.
3. Discussion items
3.1 Siu Fai said that he isn’t really excited about this project, because it’s kind of scary if
this ever happens in Hong Kong. Anish agreed, but Haoren said not to worry about it.
A pilot scheme is already in use in his hometown. John Paul said that the thirteenth
chapter of the Book of Revelation tells us that some kind of global control system will
eventually be implemented in countries all over the world, and if people are
blacklisted from the system they won’t be able to buy or sell things. It will be back to
bartering for those people who opt out, so this project could help us prepare for those
days and understand how it might work.
3.2 Siu Fai suggested that we switch topics and just develop a VR game. Haoren said that
since Prof. Lao is his father’s younger brother, we should give the social credit system
a try. Prof. Lao has always been kind to him and even helped him come to HKUST,
and he has had really good experience in the development of the social credit system
in Suzhou, so we should be able to learn a lot from him.
3.3 Anish said that he’s okay with the social credit system topic, since India will probably
get a social credit system like China’s in the future. John Paul said that the Philippines
is slow to adopt new technology, but President Duterte is quite friendly with China, so
it’s probably coming eventually to the Philippines – but probably only in cities. He
suggested that we just consider it to be a good learning experience, even if we don’t
really like the idea. After all, it’s only a proof of concept. Siu Fai finally agreed.
3.4 All team members will be having internships this summer, we won’t be able to do
much or meet face to face, but we can still do some work and meet on Zoom.
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3. Discussion items
3.1 Haoren suggested that we add COVID-19 vaccines to the system, since many
governments are planning for vaccinations, and China is one of the leaders.
3.2 Anish said that Bill Gates has been pushing vaccines for many years, and he wants to
decrease the world’s population, because his father was into eugenics and supported
Planned Parenthood. Anish said that many existing vaccines actually contain
neurotoxins, like aluminum and mercury, and often harm people. For example, in the
US in 1980, children were only required to get nine vaccines in some states, and the
autism rate was only one in 10,000; but in 2017 some states required dozens of
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vaccines, and the autism rate was one in 36! And many doctors and scientists are now
saying that vaccines simply should not include these neurotoxins.
3.3 John Paul added that some of the vaccines also include tissue from aborted babies,
which is disgusting. Doctors who give these are either ignorant or complicit in
promoting neocanibalism.
3.4 Siu Fai said that if China is making the vaccines, he doesn’t want to be their guinea
pig.
3.5 John Paul said that the COVID-19 vaccines may even be worse than existing vaccines,
because some actually modify a person’s RNA, which is like the software that controls
the DNA database. This is transhumanism and destroys what our Creator designed. It
therefore cannot be pleasing to our Creator, so we should choose to opt out.
3.6 Anish agreed. He said that if Bill Gates and China are working on it, he’ll just say,
“No thank you.”
3.7 John Paul said that he thinks that they are working together behind the scenes, since
both the US and China have been working on bioweapons for many years. The entire
pandemic has become a good excuse to implement a lot of new technology and
medical products that are quite profitable for I.T. companies and Big Pharma.
3.8 Siu Fai said that it has also allowed governments to have more power over the people.
We are all essentially now living under medical martial law to some degree.
3.9 Haoren said that he hasn’t heard any of this yet and cannot understand why nobody in
the government or WHO has mentioned these things.
3.10 Anish suggested that Haoren do more research on the topic. There is a lot of
information available online, although some videos have been removed. One good
documentary is called Plandemic. He also said that Neil Z. Miller has a good book
called Critical Vaccine Studies that summarizes 400 important scientific papers on the
dangers of vaccines.
3.11 Haoren said that even if all these things are true, we cannot stop the momentum of
these things. The WHO and many governments are behind it.
3.12 John Paul suggested that we just include some social credit point deductions for
people in our system who opt out of the vaccines. It shouldn’t be a big deal, and it can
help us understand how social credit systems work. It’s just a proof of concept. We
don’t have to necessarily agree with the way points are given or deducted.
3.13 Haoren, Anish and Siu Fai all agreed.
3.14 Regarding project responsibilities, Siu Fai will be the leader for analyzing the social
credit systems and designing, developing and testing the database. Haoren will be in
charge of designing, developing and testing the credit sharing system and the
blacklisting system. Anish will be in charge of designing, developing and testing the
punishment and reward system and the COVID-19 vaccination incentives. John Paul
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will be in charge of designing, developing and testing the community member UI and
the administrator UI; he will also write all the reports.
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