Embodiments of a decentralized, distributed trust mechanism that may be used in various networking platforms including peer-to-peer platforms, to implement trust relationships between and among nodes on a network and to implement trust relationships between nodes and content and data (codat). Protocols and methods may be provided for determining, disseminating and updating trust. For participating nodes, trust may be biased towards data relevance. Trust may have multiple components or factors, which may include node confidence, codat confidence and risk components, and embodiments may provide for the inclusion of factors of trust based on groups of nodes' common interests and/or group content relevance. Embodiments may be used for a variety of applications in which trust may be based on the norm for social interaction between participating nodes.