[hashcash] Javascript implementation of hashcash

Glad to see some folks are interested in discussing hashcash?
I implemented the hashcash minting and verification functions in 
javascript a few weeks ago. I did this after reading about comment log 
spam. My thinking was that if the dupe DB and checking functions were 
implemented in the blog software it might cut back on the spamming.

What I've found from my implementation is that Javascript is really 
slow (duh) and that this might make my effort worthless for the purpose 
I stated. If a regular user wants to post a comment they would have to 
wait for say 15 seconds while their browser computes a 10-bit 
collision. A spammer would not be using a browser and could therefore 
compute the collisions much faster. At this point we have to fall back 
to flood control and blacklisting to stop the spammer.

There may be room for sliding a small applet (to compute the token) 
into the comment submission system but that's more complicated than I 
think most people would feel comfortable with.

There's a very good chance my code sucks and that's why it's slow so 
I'd be happy to post it or send it to anyone interested in looking at 
it.

Anyone else tried something similar?

-James

-- Binary/unsupported file stripped by Ecartis --
-- Type: application/pkcs7-signature
-- File: smime.p7s

Other related posts: