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Is CAPTCHA a necessity only in ad-sponsored web? Is there other compelling use-case for it? Can we make CAPTCHA obsolete with decent micropayments solution, w

Is CAPTCHA a necessity only in ad-sponsored web? Is there other compelling use-case for it? Can we make CAPTCHA obsolete with decent micropayments solution, when you pay for every transaction with every website, just like we pay for every drop of water we use? Perhaps ISPs could handle it for us?

Ayesh 5y ago
How do you know who to pay to? Sure, you are paying for the every drop of water, but what if you really wanted to pay for water from a specific region, doesn't want water from another region, and trust that the water company does not keep a cut or rip off either of you?
- infogulch 5y ago
  Https with the origin?
tomjen3 5y ago
Captchas, or some anti-bot software is still needed whenever we deal with credit cards, because we are still using the obsolete version where, if you get your hands on the numbers , you can charge any amount you want to whomever you want, instead of a model where your card digitally signs the payment request for the given amount and receiver, which would mean that any theft is pointless. Anti-bot measures are also used to try to prevent password guessing on e.g the login site to gmail. Finally, sometimes some places offer things like tickets that go very quickly, in which case having a bot reload the page means the tickets are likely to go to somebody owning a bot rather than a fan of the performer. None of these cases are solved by payments, they are solved by client side certificates and, in the last case, by requiring the name of the people who are to use the ticket.
osmarks 5y ago
I can't see that being very popular. Even if it doesn't actually cost you much in absolute terms, billing per page will make people a lot more reluctant to explore new content.
- kevincox 5y ago
  This is an often neglected benefit of "Unlimited" plans. It changes the feeling of consuming. You have already paid so you may as well enjoy instead of asking "Do I really want to pay for this?" at every use. From a technical point of view it is possible. Assuming that the payments were mediated by some party that party could issues statements like "this user has used their monthly allowance but they would pay". Assuming that this provider is widely trusted websites may treat this as a "real user" and allow the visit. (This is roughly how https://coil.com/ https://coil.com/ works.) Of course there are negative implications such as making it very difficult for new providers to get started. You can also imagine some type of smart-contract where the subscription fee is split at the end of the day or month amongst the visited sites. Upon visit the sites just get a token for one share. Of course this would need to be very carefully designed to prevent abuse. (Example one malicious client splitting their subscription across millions of pages)

Ayesh 5y ago

How do you know who to pay to? Sure, you are paying for the every drop of water, but what if you really wanted to pay for water from a specific region, doesn't want water from another region, and trust that the water company does not keep a cut or rip off either of you?

infogulch 5y ago
Https with the origin?

tomjen3 5y ago

Captchas, or some anti-bot software is still needed whenever we deal with credit cards, because we are still using the obsolete version where, if you get your hands on the numbers , you can charge any amount you want to whomever you want, instead of a model where your card digitally signs the payment request for the given amount and receiver, which would mean that any theft is pointless. Anti-bot measures are also used to try to prevent password guessing on e.g the login site to gmail. Finally, sometimes some places offer things like tickets that go very quickly, in which case having a bot reload the page means the tickets are likely to go to somebody owning a bot rather than a fan of the performer. None of these cases are solved by payments, they are solved by client side certificates and, in the last case, by requiring the name of the people who are to use the ticket.

osmarks 5y ago

I can't see that being very popular. Even if it doesn't actually cost you much in absolute terms, billing per page will make people a lot more reluctant to explore new content.

kevincox 5y ago
This is an often neglected benefit of "Unlimited" plans. It changes the feeling of consuming. You have already paid so you may as well enjoy instead of asking "Do I really want to pay for this?" at every use. From a technical point of view it is possible. Assuming that the payments were mediated by some party that party could issues statements like "this user has used their monthly allowance but they would pay". Assuming that this provider is widely trusted websites may treat this as a "real user" and allow the visit. (This is roughly how https://coil.com/ https://coil.com/ works.) Of course there are negative implications such as making it very difficult for new providers to get started. You can also imagine some type of smart-contract where the subscription fee is split at the end of the day or month amongst the visited sites. Upon visit the sites just get a token for one share. Of course this would need to be very carefully designed to prevent abuse. (Example one malicious client splitting their subscription across millions of pages)