• RobotToaster@mander.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        32
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        It was the original purpose of the bitcoin algorithm to limit spam.

        If you have to do a lot of maths that takes your computer (for example) 30 seconds, that means it costs 30 seconds of compute to create an account. Nothing to an average user, for a spammer that wants thousands of accounts it gets expensive.

        Several captcha[0] libraries already use this and it’s great for accessibility (normal captchas are terrible for it)

        [0] I know, it’s not technically a captcha.

      • shortwavesurfer@monero.town
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        8 months ago

        For each account you register, you have to do 30 seconds worth of work. So to register one account, you do 30 seconds worth of work. To register 100 accounts, you do 100*30 or 3000 seconds (50 minutes) worth of work. Registering tens of thousands of accounts then becomes unfeasible.

          • Amju Wolf@pawb.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            15
            ·
            8 months ago

            Anything that can compute can do it. The important part is that it has an associated non-insignificant cost.

            • just_another_person@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              14
              ·
              8 months ago

              Exactly! ANYTHING THAT CAN COMPUTE CAN DO IT. Few things have a uniquely identifying piece of information with other levels that are barriers to entry…like a phone number. The idea is to STOP bots from signing up to Signal.

              Are you missing the point maybe?

              • pixelscript@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                11
                ·
                8 months ago

                It stops bot FARMS from being feasible.

                If preventing Jimmy Bumfuck from spinning up a couple sock puppets is your fear, yeah, PoW systems don’t help. But those are rarely the problem.

                For a phishing scam or astroturf operation to be worth it, you need tens of thousands of accounts all running the same script. Those get filtered hard by PoW systems.

                Phone validation works just as well, and stops Jimmy Bumfuck from making sock accounts. But now every user must be stapled to a phone number. Maybe that’s a worthwhile trade to you, but it sure doesn’t seem to be to everyone replying to you.

              • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                10
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                8 months ago

                It makes bots more expensive to create, therefore fewer will be created.

                • just_another_person@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  arrow-down
                  7
                  ·
                  8 months ago

                  It doesn’t stop anyone though. Expensive is relative when you convince a Grandma to give you her $1000 check for a $5 phone number.

              • admiralteal@kbin.social
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                7
                ·
                edit-2
                8 months ago

                Nah bro, you are.

                It’s ALSO possible to generate virtual phone numbers for a small cost.

                Using a cryptographic PoW is a different small cost.

                Either way, it only takes a small cost to prevent mass bot registration.

                You’re treating processing power and time as if it is 100% free just because it can be done in a VM. But it doesn’t matter if it is a VM. It is still going to require at least some certain threshold of processor time, and that processor time has a real cost. For the kind of place that can just spin up thousands of VMs and use it to do massive bot registration… they could just be mining bitcoins instead.

                It’s not just whether you can do this. It’s how much value it has vs what ELSE you could be doing with the time and energy. A Signal account is already worth vanishingly little as a spam tool, they just need to give it enough of a cost to make it not worthwhile.

                • just_another_person@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  8
                  ·
                  8 months ago

                  Are you unfamiliar with the market? I can buy 100 numbers right now, but they will be hit or miss from landline known numbers.