Comment Advantage of RPOW over POW? (Score 1) 191
So, as I understand it, a POW is a computationally expensive thing to create, but quick to verify. One application of this is in email. Lets say someone wanted to send me a message, I'll send them some data, and they'll create a POW right then based on that data (so they can't have a bunch of POWs stored up that they keep reusing). When I get it, I quickly verify that it's real and based on the data I gave. If it is, the email gets accepted.
This helps with spam because a spammer needs to send out a lot of mail very quickly. Even a POW that takes 2 seconds to create, which isn't so bad if you're sending a lone email, would slow down a spammer to a trickle.
Alright. Now, an RPOW is one that's reusable sequentially, or once at a time. They say it'll help with the spam thing because while it won't help spammers, it'll make it easier for regular email users. I don't get this.
In the previous example, someone would want to send me an email, I'd ask for an RPOW, they'd spend some time and produce one, I'd get the email, but now, if I wanted to reply, I could just use that RPOW, and then he could use it again, but not to send multiple copies to a whole bunch of people.
So, once a chain gets started, it's easy to keep up, but starting multiple chains is tough? Why does this matter? Is it really a big deal to wait 2 seconds, or even 10 to send an email if you're sending even 1 every 10 minutes?
Do I have this right? Maybe I'm missunderstand, or missapplying this.
This helps with spam because a spammer needs to send out a lot of mail very quickly. Even a POW that takes 2 seconds to create, which isn't so bad if you're sending a lone email, would slow down a spammer to a trickle.
Alright. Now, an RPOW is one that's reusable sequentially, or once at a time. They say it'll help with the spam thing because while it won't help spammers, it'll make it easier for regular email users. I don't get this.
In the previous example, someone would want to send me an email, I'd ask for an RPOW, they'd spend some time and produce one, I'd get the email, but now, if I wanted to reply, I could just use that RPOW, and then he could use it again, but not to send multiple copies to a whole bunch of people.
So, once a chain gets started, it's easy to keep up, but starting multiple chains is tough? Why does this matter? Is it really a big deal to wait 2 seconds, or even 10 to send an email if you're sending even 1 every 10 minutes?
Do I have this right? Maybe I'm missunderstand, or missapplying this.
