Re: no-spam email provider [was: response to "proof of work proves not to work"?]

Adam Megacz wrote:
>> It occurred to me the other day when I was talking with a friend, not
>> the right way to push our technique and show folks that it has merit
>> would be to develop a "no spam" e-mail service provider.  But in order
> 
> Your suggestion of a "no spam email provider" has occurred to me in
> the past.  There is real, genuine demand out there for this; based on
> informal surveys about half the tech-savvy people I spoke to jumped at
> the chance to pay $10/month for this if it "just worked" with
> absolutely zero false positives.
> 
> I almost did a startup like this based around my challenge-response
> filtering system, except that I realize that C/R is one of those
> things that doesn't work well if everybody uses it.  Hashcash is
> exactly the opposite: it only works well if almost everyone uses it.
> C/R is a really nice bridge from where we are now to a world where
> most people use proof-of-work.

first, if you got the infrastructure, we could do a proof of work proof 
of concept.  Obviously, I can't put any energy into it right now but 
hopefully soon.

second, stamps can be useful in the beginning depending on who you 
communicate with.  Obviously, the impact is a classic exponential curve 
with a shallow slope in the beginning and a very steep slope at the end.

so wrong to say that it's only useful if everybody uses it but it's 
probably safe to say that it has low value in the beginning and high 
value as acceptance increases beyond a certain threshold.  I will admit 
I don't have the skills for working out the terms for the equation.  It 
would be nice to have one so we could quantify acceptance versus value.

and adam, I know you love challenge response and it would be great if we 
could do that using a Java-based stamp.  But, I only put up with 
challenge response if I really, really, really want to talk to that 
person.  Most of the time I just delete the message.  I was also talking 
to a customer yesterday who said the same thing.  Most of the time, 
challenge response just goes in the trash can.

that's why I developed automatic white listing for camram.  If you send 
someone e-mail, you will get there in e-mail back without filtering.  It 
works really well.  Yes, it's not a challenge on a new person but it's 
something to consider if you are not doing it already.

I know, it sucks when somebody tells you something you really think is 
important is not acceptable.  And I apologize if I caused offense.

---eric