5 ms·
Spending 5 CPU seconds to submit one comment might be significantly cheaper for a spammer than paying someone to solve the captcha for them. Additionally, spec
by pfg 11y ago
Spending 5 CPU seconds to submit one comment might be significantly cheaper for a spammer than paying someone to solve the captcha for them.
Additionally, specifically with Tor users, you can expect a large chunk of the user base to have JavaScript disabled completely. You can do many things with JavaScript that could be used to build a browser fingerprint, so someone who's already using software to browse the web anonymously is very likely to disable that.
- beeboop 11y agoBut it isn't cheaper than just mining bitcoins with that same CPU load. This wouldn't prevent spamming, it would just make it unprofitable compared to the alternatives (mining bitcoins). The JavaScript issue can be gotten around with a browser plugin that does it as well, which would be easy to bundle on the existing Tor browser. JavaScript would still be fine for all the VPN users who get stuck with these things, and the regular users who get them occasionally for whatever reason.
- pfg 11y agoYou're not going to make any significant profit mining bitcoin on a desktop CPU, or any "normal" CPU for that matter. If we assume 5 seconds of CPU time per comment, that's ~17k per day or ~500k per month. The first captcha solving service I found sells 100k solved captchas for $139, so that's about $700 for 500k. As a spammer, I could probably post 5 to 10 times more comments for the same amount of money using your system. This is obviously a very rough estimate, but it should get my point across.