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@ -23,18 +23,20 @@
in hopes of striking a profit.
</p>
<p>
Different communication channels have tackled this issue in different ways. Centralized platforms such
Different communication channels have tackled this problem in different ways. Centralized platforms such
as Twitter or Facebook can easily observe a user running an unreasonably high amount of comms and punish
them for it. Open protocols like email have adopted DMARC, SPF and DKIM, and emails servers themselves
might use techniques like machine learning to filter and throw away spam. Chat applications like
might use techniques like machine learning to detect and throw away spam. Chat applications like
telegram will show you a big, flashy red button that says "BLOCK AND REPORT" the moment someone writes
to you out of the blue, implicitly acknowledging that they perfectly know most first-contacts happening
in their kingdom are spam.
</p>
<p>
These techniques have had some degree of success, but they are far from full eficacy. And some of them
have resulted in thrashing protocols (it happened to email, which has become notoriously unmanageable
for individuals), or creating pain-in-the-ass UX in other places.
have resulted in thrashing protocols (<a
href="https://cfenollosa.com/blog/after-self-hosting-my-email-for-twenty-three-years-i-have-thrown-in-the-towel-the-oligopoly-has-won.html">it
happened to email, which has become notoriously unmanageable
for individuals</a>), or creating pain-in-the-ass UX in other places.
</p>
<h3>The idea</h3>
<p>
@ -47,35 +49,33 @@
That's it, that's the idea.
</p>
<p>
Just in case it's not clear enough, my home page here has an example. <a
href="../index.html#contact-header" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">In the contact
section</a> you'll notice you can send me an email, but you'll only see the address if you pay
first. With this, I avoid the wild west of internet to drown my inbox. I also protect myself from people
who would send my a lovingly crafted, good old manual email, but only intend to catch my attention for
their own purposes and are not willing to put any effort from their side. </p>
<p>
Why does it work? I don't think I need to explain it to you, it's intuitive enough you're just
realising: if a spammer needs to pay a cent everytime he shoots, he is going to run out of bullets quite
soon. Worst case scenario, he keeps spamming, but will become much more select with where he invests his
time and resources (which probably isn't that far away from how normal people decide whether they should
bother someone else with unsollicited contact) and whoever gets spammed at least gets a small
compensation for it.
Best case scenario, the spammer switches jobs, finds a better place in the world and we're all happy.
A simple hypothetical example: I could open up my email inbox for anyone, but only accept their message
<em>if they pay me</em>. With this, I would be able to keep myself open to contacts but also avoid the
wild west of internet to drown my inbox. I would also protect myself from people who would try to send
me a lovingly crafted, good old manual email, but only intending to catch my attention for their own
purposes and not being up to putting any effort from their side.
</p>
<p>
Thus, introducing payments would bring down the noise. And we could remove many of those weird UX
quirks,
design and engineering decisions we've been piling on for decades that have made some of our existing
communication channels so much worse that they could have been.
Why would that work? I don't think I need to explain it to you, it's simple and intuitive enough you're
just realising: if a spammer needs to pay a cent everytime he shoots, he is going to run out of cents
quite soon. Worst case scenario, he keeps spamming, but will become much more select with where he
invests his time and resources (which probably isn't that far away from how normal people decide whether
they should bother someone else with unsollicited contact) and whoever gets spammed at least gets a
some compensation for it. Best case scenario, the spammer switches jobs, finds a better place in the
world and we're all happier.
</p>
<p>Besides the technological side of it, it would also make real people think twice. If I'm a lazy bum going
to send an email to some random guy who maintains an open source package but hasn't touched in 5 years,
asking him if he's going to fix some issue, and I have zero intent to help, support, or contribute to
the endeavor (I'm really just trying my luck), I'm probably not even willing to pay a buck for that. And
he will probably be grateful about me not bothering him in such a selfish way. On
<p>
Thus, introducing payments would bring down the noise. And then we could remove many of those weird UX
quirks, design and engineering decisions we've been piling on for decades that have made some of our
existing communication channels so much worse that they could have been.
</p>
<p>Besides the technological side of it, it could also make real people think twice before reaching out. If
I'm a lazy bum going to send an email to some random guy who maintains an open source package but hasn't
touched in 5 years, asking him if he's going to fix some issue, and I have zero intent to help, support,
or contribute to the endeavor (I'm really just trying my luck), I'm probably not even willing to pay a
buck for that. And he will probably be grateful about me not bothering him in such a selfish way. On
the other hand, if I want to reach out to the lead singer of some indie band in my town because I want
to
hire his band for my friend's birthday, I really wouldn't mind paying that buck, or even five. And he
to hire his band for my friend's birthday, I really wouldn't mind paying that buck, or even five. And he
will be very happy to get messages from people who are truly interested in their band (and prove it by
paying). </p>
<p>
@ -87,8 +87,8 @@
</p>
<p>
Some people are already doing this. <a href="https://www.lopp.net">Jameson Lopp</a>, a very intelligent
and prolific business man and engineer, allows you to send him a mesage: but if you want it to be in his
high priority queue, <a href="https://www.lopp.net/contact.php" target="_blank"
and prolific business man and engineer, publicly allows you to send him a mesage: but if you want it to
be in his high priority queue, <a href="https://www.lopp.net/contact.php" target="_blank"
rel="noopener noreferrer">you have to pay a 100$.</a> And I think it's great. Having this man waste
a single minute of his day on stupid spam would be a terrible loss to humanity.
</p>
@ -99,10 +99,10 @@
<p>
Electronic payment systems have been archaic for decades. Technology has moved at an incredible pace for
many decades, but the banking and finance industries, being corrupt oligopolies, have happily sat on
their ass
collecting bonuses and living the life. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5EV-O0S5g4">Until
Bitcoin came along, which changed things.</a> On this front, we're on the right path: there will be
more and more solutions to easily apply this anti-spam pattern everywhere.
their ass collecting bonuses and living the life. <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5EV-O0S5g4">Until Bitcoin came along, which changed
things.</a> On this front, we're on the right path: there will be more and more solutions to easily
apply this anti-spam pattern everywhere.
</p>
<p>I also think the mainstream morality ideas in much of the west have tried to suppress selfishness in
extreme ways. I know a lot of people would feel plain bad and guilty pretending to charge just to be
@ -118,10 +118,11 @@
Another reason this is not being done today, even though the idea is beautifully spreading outside of
cypherpunk niche corners, is that the tooling is still not that good. Most people are not familiar with
using Bitcoin in any of its forms, which is not helping. And we're missing good apps to handle the
wrapping of contact details behind paywalls. It took me some effort to set it up in my own page, and I
know a thing or two. If you don't have ideas for setting up a startup, this would be a great service to
develop. I would happily pay 10% of the incoming money from these anti-spam paywalls if it meant I
didn't have to wait a single minute maintaning it.
wrapping of contact details behind paywalls. I haven't set it up myself in this page because it would
take time and effort I'm currently not willing to spend, and I know a thing or two on the topic! If you
don't have ideas for setting up a startup, this would be a great service to develop. I would happily pay
10% of the incoming money from these anti-spam paywalls if it meant I didn't have to wait a single
minute maintaning it.
</p>
<p>If you want to look more into it, here are some interesting resources:</p>
<ul>