First new plugin in awhile, this one uses cool new tech to fight spam.
Hashcash.io is a tool I noticed awhile back, but only started deploying today. Testing it on my own blog first.
What Hashcash does is uses lightweight Bitcoin-like mining through your web browser (asm.js) to fight comment spam. Huh? I’ll explain.
Spammers don’t like barriers to entry. Fighting Captchas is now pretty straightforward, and they can pay a few cents to brute-force through thousands of captchas via OCR technology. There needs to be more.
What Hashcash realized, is that if you have the web browser do some heavy-decoding of a native-level task, it’ll scare off most spammers who don’t want to pay for CPU processing time (especially per comment).
Hashcache then decided to go Bitcoin (technically Dogecoin) mining. When you hit the unlock button on the comment box, to start posting, the web browser (on your phone, tablet, or PC) then does a little bit of Dogecoin mining for them. Once it’s done enough heavy lifting to prove you aren’t a spambot, you get to post. Hashcash says they will split earnings with the community.
I really don’t care about the coin mining myself, I do however care a lot about fighting comment spam. This is an innovative way that keeps the spammers frozen out… at least, for now.
Couple things that need improvement, however:
* Hashcash.io does not work with Disqus nor Jetpack Comments right now. You have to pick one or the other.
* The unlock button does not give good explanation as to what it’s there for… users need a bit more hand holding to be told the unlock button is in lieu of a captcha, and doesn’t involve registration to post a comment.