Interesting to note that the original invention of Proof Of Work was motivated by anti-spam in particular ("Pricing via Processing or Combatting Junk Mail" Dwork & Naor, Advances in Cryptology — CRYPTO' 92).
In the short term I'm sure the approach works, but the proof of work part of it is just theatrics and doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Using an uncommon CAPTCHA with some alternative heuristics is enough to deter spammers (until it isn't).
Any back of the napkin calculation will show you that if spammers actually start solving the challenge, they will either pay a ridiculously low amount of server CPU time, or regular users on relatively underpowered devices (i.e. smartphones) will have to wait forever for a pageload.
You'll never see that basic calculation being spelled out on product pages, because it will show its mostly smoke and mirrors.
Hm, to be quiet honest, PoW holds as long, as no one takes this hurdle. Up to now it wasn't taken. But your point is true Once it is broken the standard tools apply repetition-blocking, gibberish-detection and block lists.
Yes it is an piece that you can integrate on every form by hand if you are a coder. The plugin is addressed to people who aren't coding and thus are using Wordpress. It secures all forms of your page at once even for third party form builders and themes.
Since June 2026 there exists a WordPress integration, but it covers only a few forms and requires for an additional service.
But yes, if you don't use Wordpress and develop your page on your own, Cap may be a good choice.
Interesting to note that the original invention of Proof Of Work was motivated by anti-spam in particular ("Pricing via Processing or Combatting Junk Mail" Dwork & Naor, Advances in Cryptology — CRYPTO' 92).
In the short term I'm sure the approach works, but the proof of work part of it is just theatrics and doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Using an uncommon CAPTCHA with some alternative heuristics is enough to deter spammers (until it isn't).
Any back of the napkin calculation will show you that if spammers actually start solving the challenge, they will either pay a ridiculously low amount of server CPU time, or regular users on relatively underpowered devices (i.e. smartphones) will have to wait forever for a pageload.
You'll never see that basic calculation being spelled out on product pages, because it will show its mostly smoke and mirrors.
Hm, to be quiet honest, PoW holds as long, as no one takes this hurdle. Up to now it wasn't taken. But your point is true Once it is broken the standard tools apply repetition-blocking, gibberish-detection and block lists.
https://trycap.dev/ existed the whole time, and does not need wordpress.
Yes it is an piece that you can integrate on every form by hand if you are a coder. The plugin is addressed to people who aren't coding and thus are using Wordpress. It secures all forms of your page at once even for third party form builders and themes.
Since June 2026 there exists a WordPress integration, but it covers only a few forms and requires for an additional service.
But yes, if you don't use Wordpress and develop your page on your own, Cap may be a good choice.
Hmmmm. Is this the compute economy that Altman was going on about.
Neat. Another idea bouncing around in my head - add a form field aimed at triggering a refusal:
Thats a funny honeypot idea, just like the hidden field which still catches a lot of bots
Looks good - thanks for sharing.