[elcritch]

Essentially the Pow aspect is pointless then? They could require almost any arbitrary thing.

[loloquwowndueo]

What else do you envision being used instead of proof of work?

[semiquaver]

Rot13 a challenge string. It could be any arbitrary function.

[loloquwowndueo]

That wouldn’t have the fallback rate-limiting functionality. It’s too cheap.

[elcritch]

It’s too cheap as a rate limiter as it is if you read TFA.

[trenchpilgrim]

That's a configurable setting.

[semiquaver]

There’s no possible setting that would make it expensive enough to deter AI scrapers while preserving an acceptable user experience. The more zeros you add the more real users suffer, despite not creating much of a challenge to datacenter-hosted scrapers.