Developer builds anonymous pastebin that uses proof-of-work to deter spam bots

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A developer has launched an anonymous paste service called PowForge that replaces traditional login or CAPTCHA requirements with a computational cost to combat spam. Instead of creating an account, users must either complete a small proof-of-work challenge — finding a SHA-256 hash with a set number of leading zero bits — or pay 10 satoshis via the Bitcoin Lightning Network. The proof-of-work approach is designed so that a single human user barely notices the overhead, while a bot attempting thousands of posts faces a meaningful and unrotatable cumulative cost. Proof-of-work pastes expire after 24 hours, whereas Lightning-paid pastes are stored for 30 days. The developer argues that identity-based defenses like accounts and IP rate limits fail because bots can easily circumvent them, whereas an energy cost scales directly with posting volume regardless of identity.

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