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I work in this space at a company you've heard of - even at our scale and with our resources the proportionally larger attack incentives mean we are constantly
by djohnston 4y ago
I work in this space at a company you've heard of - even at our scale and with our resources the proportionally larger attack incentives mean we are constantly firefighting.
> The other alternatives all suck to the extent of my knowledge, they're either prohibitively convoluted, or web3 cryptocurrency micro-transaction nonsense that while sure it would work, also monetizes every single interaction in a way that is more dystopian than the actual skull-crushing robot apocalypse.
I understand the drawback here but I would like to see monetized transactions employed as a defense layer a little more before we make a final decision. It is undemocratic, to be sure, but maybe for those of us who can afford it it's still better than the cesspool we currently sift through on every major platform. Anyone aware of any platforms taking this approach?
Maybe the fediverse will help - by fragmenting networks attackers may have less incentive to attack a particular one.
- reaperducer 4y agoAnyone aware of any major platforms taking this approach? The Postal Service? Sure, there's junk mail, but imagine how much junk mail there would be if it were delivered for free. It wasn't until phone calls became so cheap as to be "unlimited" that we ended up flooded with billions of junk calls. Microtransactions (non-crypto, thankyouverymuch) would solve a certain number of today's problems.
- marginalia_nu 4y agoI do think it would help, like even if a transaction cost 0.05c, it would add up very quickly for a bot operator but stay cheap for everyone else. But I think the problem is it would inevitably introduce the need for a middle man, shaving 0.01c off that 0.05c, with a dubious incentive to increase the amount of money changing hands as much as possible. What you've invented at that point is basically Cloudflare with worse incentives. You get either that, or yucky defi web3 crap.
- djohnston 4y agoYes for sure, I have thought about making an email "stamp" web-3 service that would implement this. I even wanted to make some fun "pony express" animations whenever a letter was arriving to your inbox.
- kube-system 4y agoLet's finally implement HTTP 402
- Bloating 4y agoWasn't this the basis of bitcoin? Pre bitcoin, I remember some whitepaper suggesting that email clients should spend some minute amount of processing power solving a cryptographic problem for each email sent. The theory was that a legit client would barely notice, but a spammer would expend significant resources.