hashcash => mailing lists get spam instead

Adam Back aba at dcs.ex.ac.uk
Sat Dec 13 03:19:57 PST 1997




Bill Frantz <frantz at netcom.com> writes:
> 
> At 4:59 PM -0800 12/12/97, Adam Back wrote:
> >I am looking at writing some hashcash
> > ... Neatly worked out scheme deleted ...
> 
> I think there needs to be a story for mailing lists.  It might be
> acceptable for the first pass to allow spamming of mailing lists but not of
> individuals email addresses.  (Apologies in advance to list moderators.)

Yes, I think this is a reasonable first pass.

Naturally as you suggest the foiled spammer will then target mailing
lists and newsgroups.

I tend to view this as less of a problem because these forums are
already noisy and tend to require filtering, or manual filtering by
skimming for posters you recognize anyway.

Also I understand collaborative ratings schemes like NoCeM can be
configured to work for mailing lists.  For people who don't want to
install new software (and that is most people in my experience, myself
included) can use filtering services.

For example if spam became a problem on cypherpunks it would be easy
for someone to set up yet another filtered cypherpunks list which
promised to filter purely on the commercial spam criteria.

The reputation of the available filtering services, and the paranoia
of various list members would ensure that any untoward filtering would
be called into question.

Adam
-- 
Now officially an EAR violation...
Have *you* exported RSA today? --> http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/rsa/

print pack"C*",split/\D+/,`echo "16iII*o\U@{$/=$z;[(pop,pop,unpack"H*",<>
)]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|dc`







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