• Amju Wolf@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      ·
      9 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
        ·
        9 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
          ·
          9 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
          ·
          9 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
            ·
            9 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.

          • just_another_person@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            9 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.