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- Herausgeber: Spines
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Trust is the hidden currency that underpins every economy, yet until now it has been intangible and immeasurable. The T Coefficient introduces a breakthrough indicator that quantifies trust capital across operational readiness, governance integrity, and sustainability responsibility—anchored in verifiable, independent endorsements. Surrounding it is The Trust Network (Tᴺ), a global trust ledger enabling businesses, governments, and financial institutions to certify, connect, and transact around verified trust profiles. Focused on SMBs—the backbone of global trade and the majority of the world’s economy—this system reduces risk, accelerates commerce, and unlocks growth. In an era of AI, deepfakes, and eroding authenticity, the T Coefficient offers a timely, transparent solution: a blueprint for transforming trust into measurable capital, unleashing a “trust dividend” that empowers businesses, strengthens institutions, and accelerates economies worldwide.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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The T Coefficient
Building the Trust Network for Global Economic Acceleration
Samuel Cuñado
Samuel Cuñado
The T Coefficient
Building the Trust Network for Global Economic Acceleration
All rights reserved
Copyright © 2025 by Samuel Cuñado
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Published by Spines Publishing Platform
ISBN: 979-8-90002-671-8
Contents
Preface: A Real-World Moment
Introduction: Trust — A Missing Variable in Economic Measurement
I. The Problem
1. The Silent Currency of Commerce
2. When the Runway Is Paved but the Plane Can’t Take Off
3. The Globalization Trap
II. The Concept
4. Introducing the T Coefficient
5. The Architecture of Trust
6. Trust as Data
III. The Ecosystem
7. Building Trust to the Power of N
8. The Benefits for Each Player
IV. From Idea to Reality
9. Seeding the Network
10. Driving Adoption
11. The Monetization Model
12. The Roadmap to Global Implementation
V. The Future of Trust
13. The T Coefficient as an Economic Indicator
14. The Role of AI in Trust Measurement
15. The Role of Blockchain in Trust Management
16. A New Era for SMBs and Global Commerce
VI. Call to Actions
17. Call to Actions
Call to Action for SMBs
Call to Action for Governments
Call to Action for Chambers of Commerce
Call to Action for Corporates and Banks
Sources/References
Acknowledgements & Reflections
About the Author
Preface: A Real-World Moment
Picture this.
You run a small manufacturing company in São Paulo. A message arrives in your inbox from a boutique retailer in Berlin: they love your products and want to place a large order. Maybe you connected through an online marketplace, a mutual contact introduced you, or you even met in person at a trade fair. There’s an initial sense of trust—enough to start discussing business—but it’s a soft, self-endorsed kind of trust.
And then, the moment of commitment arrives.
What happens if they don’t pay the final invoice? What if the shipment gets held up in customs and the buyer disappears? Will they actually honor their word if something goes wrong?
Across the Atlantic, that Berlin retailer is having the same sleepless night.
They’ve seen your catalog, maybe even shaken your hand, but they wonder: Will the products arrive on time? Will the quality match the samples? Will you disappear after the first shipment?
Despite initial goodwill, doubts begin to emerge because, for SMBs, a single mistake can be disastrous for cash flow. As time goes on, weeks pass, emails slow down, and ultimately the deal falls apart. Not because the price was wrong. Not because the product was poor. But because the most valuable asset in business was missing: trust.
The Bigger Picture
Now multiply that hesitation by millions of potential cross-border partnerships, and you'll begin to see the scope of the problem.
What’s especially frustrating is that this trust gap remains, despite broad support for SMB growth: governments providing subsidies, tax incentives, and export programs; banks eager to finance new ventures; and large suppliers and customers trying to access the vast SMB market. All these players are circling this segment, convinced of its economic importance, yet the transactions that could lead to real expansion still stall or never begin.
It’s like gravity: you can’t see it, but it’s always there—an invisible force that determines whether things rise or fall. In business, the lack of trust works the same way. You don’t see it on a balance sheet, you don’t hear it in a boardroom speech, but it quietly pulls deals back down to the ground before they can ever take off.
In other words, the runway is paved and the engines are running, but the plane can’t take off because trust is the missing clearance from the control tower.
From Story to Solution
For centuries, commerce has depended on this delicate yet vital foundation. We trust that the goods we order will arrive as promised, that the payment we send will be honored, and that the partners we select will act with integrity. Although this trust is rarely documented, measured, or universally acknowledged, it influences the speed and scope of economic growth. Without it, transactions stop, partnerships break down, and opportunities vanish.
Today, our global economy relies on metrics like GDP, credit scores, and trade balances to assess performance. These are helpful tools, but they overlook a crucial aspect: the practical, verifiable trustworthiness of the businesses that support local and global commerce—especially small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), which constitute most of the economic activity worldwide.
This is where the T Coefficient comes in
Think of the T Coefficient as an X-ray for business trust; it doesn’t just examine the surface but reveals the internal structure. Unlike self-declared claims (“Trust me, I’m trustworthy”), it is based on multiple independent endorsements, each from a reputable source: governments, chambers of commerce, banks, multinational corporations, social and environmental organizations, customers, and suppliers. Because it incorporates all these sources, this trust isn’t one-dimensional; it’s multi-dimensional, like a diamond whose value comes from many facets reflecting light. The more facets you can verify, the clearer and more valuable the overall picture of trust becomes.
In other words, the T Coefficient (short for Trust Coefficient) is like a passport stamped by many respected authorities, with each page showing that you’ve been vetted, recognized, and approved from different perspectives. One stamp might confirm you’re a legal entity, another that you follow solid banking practices, another that you deliver quality products on time, and yet another that you meet environmental standards. While each stamp is important on its own, together they tell a story that’s impossible to forge.
What This Book Will Do
In this book, I will attempt to:
The Goal
My goal is ambitious but simple: to create an economic tool that measures trust as accurately as we now measure creditworthiness, productivity, or inflation. This will allow for faster transactions, reduced risk, more opportunities, and quicker growth for businesses and communities alike.
Trust has always been the silent currency of commerce. The T Coefficient will make it visible, measurable, and tradable—like capturing something everyone has felt but no one has ever bottled — and finally placing it where the whole world can use it.
Introduction: Trust — A Missing Variable in Economic Measurement
In modern economies, decision-makers rely on a familiar set of tools: GDP to measure output, CPI for inflation, interest rates to influence spending, and unemployment to assess labor health. These metrics are useful, but like checking a patient’s height, weight, and blood pressure, they miss deeper issues. They show what is happening, but not why.
What they often miss is the significance of relationships within the system—between buyers and sellers, governments and entrepreneurs, lenders and borrowers. Each contract is like a handshake, whether in person or online. Each investment is a leap of faith. In the space between transactions, trust acts as the invisible current that either speeds up or slows down the economy.
This book presents the T Coefficient, a new macroeconomic measure designed to gauge trust: how it exists, evolves, and influences performance in both public and private sectors. Environments with high trust shorten decision-making cycles, lower transaction costs, reduce risk premiums, improve access to credit, and encourage greater market participation. Conversely, low-trust environments do the opposite, causing friction, delays, and inefficiencies that accumulate over time.
For small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), trust is not just a lubricant; it’s a lifeline. Globally, SMBs make up over 90% of all businesses, provide 60–70% of jobs, and contribute nearly half of GDP¹²³. In the U.S., they employ nearly half the workforce and generate more than 40% of GDP⁴. In India, 63 million SMBs offer over 100 million jobs, represent one-third of the GDP, and make up 40% of exports⁵. In Mexico, they produce more than half of GDP and employ nearly three-quarters of the formal workforce⁶. Thailand’s SMBs account for 99.7% of all firms and employ over 80% of workers⁷, while in South Korea, they comprise 99.9% of enterprises and support 88% of all jobs⁸.
Unlike large corporations with regulatory buffers and capital reserves, SMBs depend on relational capital—trust among customers, suppliers, regulators, and lenders. The T Coefficient offers a framework to measure, strengthen, and expand this trust as a strategic economic asset, complementing, not replacing, traditional indicators.
Why Our Current Dashboard Fails
Measuring an economy only by GDP, inflation, and unemployment is like diagnosing a runner’s fitness without checking their stamina or pulse. A country can show strong numbers while trust quietly diminishes, increasing the risk of instability.
Before the 2008 financial crisis, main indicators seemed strong—GDP was growing, unemployment was low, and stock markets performed well. However, trust among banks, investors, and governments was weakening underneath. When it collapsed, the effects spread quickly and widely.
Today, blind spots still remain. In Spain, labor market data is distorted by reclassifications that give a overly optimistic view. In many parts of the Global South, large informal economies are not recorded, leaving policymakers with only part of the full picture.
Trust Breakdown in the 2008 Crisis
Had trust been assessed in 2006–2007, warning signs would have been apparent: tighter credit approvals despite strong macroeconomic indicators, changes in supplier payment terms, and declining small-business optimism. These are subtle behavioral signals—the economic equivalent of chest pains before a heart attack.
When the crisis hit, Wall Street headlines took center stage, but on Main Street, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) suffered the most. Imagine a family bakery with a modest line of credit competing against a large coffee chain. When lending froze, both were affected, but the bakery lacked reserves and corporate support. Every late payment or rejected loan pushed it closer to shutting down.
Data reveals the story:
GDP recovered, but small business credit remained stagnant in recession. This was not just a financial failure; it was a breakdown of trust: lenders in borrowers, businesses in customers, suppliers in partners.
The T Coefficient could have identified these trust fractures early, enabling targeted interventions before the shock became systemic.
Spain’s Polished but Fragile Labor Picture
By late 2024, Spain’s unemployment rate dropped to 10.61%, the lowest since mid-2008¹. In May 2025, the number of unemployed fell below 2.5 million for the first time in 17 years, with over 190,000 new jobs added that month²³. However, the EU average remains at just 5.9%⁴, and much of Spain’s apparent progress comes from public-sector hiring (~3 million jobs, or 14–15% of the workforce⁵) and “fijo-discontinuo” contracts that classify seasonal workers as permanently employed.
While these measures improve statistics, they hide underlying instability. Public jobs, funded by taxes or debt, have limited effect on productivity, and Spain’s debt-to-GDP ratio has increased from 39% in 2008 to around 107% in 2024⁶. Higher taxes and compliance costs push SMBs toward informality, leading to underreported income, off-the-books payments to workers, or complete avoidance of registration.
Here, the T Coefficient would not only track job numbers but also measure labor stability, institutional credibility, and the share of economic activity operating formally, revealing trust trends hidden beneath official data.
The Shadows Beneath the GDP
If GDP is a tourist’s photo of the economy, it captures landmarks but not the street life. Across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, informal economies are the main stage, not just the margins. Street vendors in Lagos, family workshops in Mumbai, and mechanics in Lima—they may never appear in GDP, yet they support millions.
The ILO estimates that informal employment makes up more than 60% of workers worldwide, and over 80% in some regions¹. In Peru, it’s about 70% of employment; in Bolivia, around 82%². This isn’t idleness; it’s a way to adapt to strict labor laws, high taxes, and limited formal job opportunities.
For SMBs, high compliance costs often make it easier to stay under the radar. Even in advanced economies, activities like domestic work, small-scale construction, and parts of the gig economy are often not counted.
The T Coefficient measures “formality” as a trust dimension by tracking the proportion of economic activity conducted within official frameworks. An increase in formality indicates growing institutional trust, while a decrease suggests the opposite.
Closing the Gap
Traditional indicators measure the light under the streetlamp; the T Coefficient also explores the shadows. By quantifying trust in credit, labor stability, institutional integrity, and the visibility of economic activity, it can identify vulnerabilities early and reveal strengths that GDP alone cannot fully explain.
In a volatile, polarized, and often mistrustful world, trust is no longer just a soft ideal; it is a strategic asset. The T Coefficient provides a way to measure, manage, and harness it to strengthen the economic foundations that numbers alone can’t fully explain.
The Problem
The Silent Currency of Commerce
The Role of Trust in Trade Through History
Picture a small village from thousands of years ago. You bake bread, and your neighbor raises sheep. You trade a loaf for a piece of meat. There are no contracts or receipts, just an understanding that the deal is fair today and will be fair tomorrow. Back then, trust was the real currency. If someone watered down the wine, sold bad milk, or provided less grain than promised, word spread quickly. A bad reputation could ruin a person’s ability to trade, and with it, their way of life.
As people started trading with strangers from other towns, the game changed. You couldn’t depend on family ties or knowing someone since childhood. Medieval merchants often sent goods on long journeys by caravan across deserts or by ship over dangerous seas. They had no way to track their goods, so they had to rely on letters of credit, written records, and early forms of insurance. Think about sending a valuable watch by courier today—you don’t know the driver, but you trust the delivery company and the rules it follows to keep you safe.
To make trade safer, merchants formed guilds. These were groups of people in the same trade—goldsmiths, cloth makers, blacksmiths—who promised to follow certain standards. If you broke the rules or cheated customers, you could be fined or kicked out. Without the guild’s name backing you, your business was finished. It’s similar to being banned from selling on Amazon—your access to customers would vanish overnight.
Some merchants joined even larger networks, like the Hanseatic League in Northern Europe. This was a group of trading cities that agreed on common rules, legal protections, and fair measurements. If you saw a ship flying their flag, you knew you could trust the goods and the deal. It was the medieval version of having a “verified” badge online to prove you were part of a trustworthy group.
In other instances, trust was built through close relationships within a community. Armenian traders, for example, established extensive trade networks across Europe, Persia, and India by relying on family and cultural ties. A handshake between two Armenian merchants held much more significance than a written contract because breaking that trust could mean losing one's place in the community forever.
Governments also contributed to building trust. The Byzantine–Venetian treaty of 1082 granted Venetian merchants tax breaks, legal protections, and special access to ports in exchange for military assistance. Here, trust existed between two powerful states, each aware that breaking the agreement would entail serious consequences.
Of course, trust has not always been strong. Wars, corruption, and financial crises have broken it more than once. But each time, new systems were created to rebuild it. When only a small group controlled trade, economies often slowed down. When more people were allowed to participate under fair rules, trade expanded again. It’s like a party where only a few people are allowed to talk, and things don’t really get going until everyone’s included.
From simple village exchanges to complex international agreements, the way we build trust has evolved many times. Personal reputation worked in small markets. Guilds and trade leagues added rules and protections. Cultural and family ties created strong bonds in certain communities. Modern governments and laws allow millions of strangers to trade every day. The tools are different, but the core idea remains the same: without trust, no trade system can survive.
Today, we might think of trust as online reviews, “verified seller” badges, and buyer protection policies. These are just the latest versions of something humans have relied on for thousands of years. Whether you’re paying for goods in a medieval market or clicking “buy now” on a website, you’re still making the same leap of faith: trusting the other side to keep their promise.
Take the story of a small coffee farmer in Colombia who found a buyer through a café chain in Japan. They had never met in person. The first order was small, but it arrived on time and in good condition. Payment was made smoothly. Each subsequent order built more trust. A year later, the café owner flew to Colombia, visited the farm, and signed a five-year contract. No one forced them to trust each other. It happened gradually, step by step, until the connection between them was strong enough to support an international business. That connection was made of trust, and without it, the coffee beans would have never left the farm.
Why Trust Matters More for SMBs
Running a small or medium-sized business is similar to hosting a community potluck where everyone's contribution is crucial to the meal. For SMBs, trust is that vital ingredient. Without it, the gathering fails.
Small businesses lack big advertising budgets or household-name brands. Instead, they rely on trust to stand out from the crowd. When a customer walks in spontaneously, they’re taking a leap of faith, expecting the product or service to meet their expectations. That leap occurs quickly and often without the reassurance of logos or national reputation that can build trust. This is why referrals are so powerful; one person’s positive word is invaluable in local business circles. Trust accelerates sales, fosters loyalty, and transforms first-time buyers into repeat customers.
