| > My ISP gives me a dynamic IP. I could turn off my router for a few minutes and be someone "brand new". They can do the same thing with phone numbers. Buy prepaid SIM cards in bulk, use each one to create an email account, then sell them all again to recover the money because they still have 99% of the prepaid data left. This is less annoying for spammers than regular people who have to do this, because the spammers benefit from technical knowledge and economies of scale. > An email system that costs $10/month isn't going to be used by many spammers, because any reasonable administrator will ban obvious spam and they won't get their $10 to cover costs before being shut down. But it also limits the customer pool; most people are not going to pay $10 a month of email when free services are available. It doesn't have to be $10/month, it only has to be $10 on account creation, or $1. The legitimate user is going to have the same account for ten years, the spammer is going to lose their account inside of an hour. The problem there is we still don't have an easy anonymous digital payments system, but requiring payment details is about as bad as requiring a phone number. In theory this is where cryptocurrency could be useful, but only if it becomes easier for regular people to use it. You could also do similar proof of work things. For example, user doesn't want to provide a phone number? Fine, here's your email account, which can receive emails. If you want to send emails, install Folding@home or similar and submit X many work units. With email apps this could be completely automated; you install the app, your phone is plugged in overnight, the next day you can send emails. |