Cheater Detection
Mechanisms that identify individuals who benefit from cooperation without contributing their fair share. Essential for maintaining cooperative systems against exploitation.
Used in the Books
This term appears in 4 chapters:
"...stributed (agents own infrastructure), inclusive (accessible to anyone with a mobile phone). The symbiotic model won decisively. Mercado Libre: Cheater Detection at Scale In 1999, Marcos Galperin founded Mercado Libre - "Free Market" - to become Latin America's e-commerce leader."
"Genotype variation creates new strategies. Phenotype variation adapts strategies to micro-environments. Step 6: Build Cheater Detection for Internal Selection A SaaS company measured product teams on "features shipped per quarter." Product A shipped 12 features in Q1."
"13) - Result: Quota violations increased from 18% to 23% The biological lesson: Coalitions require cheater detection and punishment. When detection lags and punishment is costly, defection becomes rational and coalition collapses gradually. OPEC demonstrates "slow-..."
"Chapter 6: Cheater Detection - How Markets Punish Freeloaders The Vampire Bat's Dilemma Vampire bats face a brutal survival problem."
Biological Context
Social species have evolved sophisticated abilities to recognize and punish cheaters. Cleaner fish that bite instead of cleaning get attacked. Vampire bats that don't share blood are ostracized. Without cheater detection, cooperative systems collapse as defectors outcompete cooperators.
Business Application
Business cheater detection: quality assurance, audits, reputation systems, and contractual penalties. Platforms like eBay and Uber rely on rating systems to identify and exclude bad actors.