[extropy-chat] Spam

[John K Clark]

I think the entire protocol is going to have to change as spam is fast
making Email unusable. The best idea I've heard is if you want to send me a
message and you are not in my address book then I won't see it until your
machine factors a medium sized randomly generated number my machine gives
yours, a task that should take the average home PC about 10 seconds. This
will not hurt legitimate mass mailers such as the Extropian list as they
would be on my white list and not have to do it, nor will it much cramp the
style of somebody who sends 7 or 8 Emails a day, but if you want to send 7
or 8 million Emails a day it will be a significant burden and will cost you.
The cost per message need not be very high, the percentage of people who
actually buy their snake oil is so low even a tenth of a cent would make
spam uneconomical.

John K Clark     jonkc at att.net