Defeating Spam Bots using Bitcoin

To give you a better, safer, and more enjoyable online experience, we need to close the gap that currently exists between in-person and digital conversation. To do so, we need to build on the idea of credit inside of a social experience, which then adds a layer of censorship resistance. A decentralized utility that is built on the Bitcoin network provides safety and civility in an online world where danger, fear, and incivility run rampant on centralized platforms.

How? By asking every member to put some skin in the game and make themselves more accountable to their peers than they would be on Twitter, Instagram, and other networks. If a creator has staking turned on for the community that they administrate, a certain amount of satoshis, which is outlined in the stake contract when you join the community, is held in escrow when you make a comment.

Staking was first introduced by Paul Itoi and his team via the Sphinx app to get rid of spam. This was an evolution of the hashcash concept invented by Adam Back, which created stamps to attach to email that added a micro-cost to sending spam messages and inspired the proof-of-work algorithm that Bitcoin is based on. Itoi explained how he evolved the staking function:

“Adding the ability to require a micropayment with each message prevents spam. The payment is too small for the sender to notice, but it’s enough to make spam unprofitable at scale. These tiny payments are the immune cells that push out the junk content that plagues Reddit, Discord, and Twitter.”[i]

Here’s one way that staking can prove to be an effective deterrent against uncivil posting as well as spam. If the creator of a community in the decentralized network you’re using deems your comment to be offensive or detrimental to themselves, another member, or the group at large, they’ll delete the comment from the thread and you will lose your stake, as you’ve willfully gone against the smart contract and failed to uphold your end of the bargain by spamming, slamming, or disrespecting other members. Whereas if your comment stays on the community page for the duration of the staking contract (let’s say 24, 48, or 72 hours), your satoshis will be returned without penalty.

Such accreditation and staking prevent bullying, hazing, spam, and all the other things that degrade your online experience and that of the people you interact with. It also replaces the old platform governance model with more judicious peer governance, just like you have in your neighborhood and the in-person groups that you’re a member of. To regain civility in our digital discourse, there must first be more accountability. And this begins with establishing credit and consequences for actions that are harmful to individuals and communities. Staking is the simplest and most effective first step in doing so and a powerful example of how a network built on the Bitcoin standard can utilize a layer of monetary credit to encourage respectful, constructive, and considerate dialog that is often absent on platforms where accountability is lacking.

These measures can help usher in a more civilized, courteous, cross-border society in our increasingly digital world. It’s how we can start to make the internet better for ourselves and our children. If your kids currently use TikTok, Twitter, or any of Meta’s properties, are you ever concerned for their welfare? Check out any news website, and you’ll be sure to see a story about cyberbullying and the mental and physical health issues that it causes for young people in particular.

In contrast, if they were using a decentralized utility, you could be safe in the knowledge that the comments of nefarious people would be removed and those who posted them held responsible through the use of staking contracts. No longer could your kids be subjected to verbal abuse, threats, or shaming as they can be daily on traditional social media. They’d finally have the freedom to chat with friends, connect with creators, and thrive in communities without the looming menace of having their mental health and confidence destroyed by bad actors. This is the promise that platforms built on the Bitcoin standard offer.

[i] Paul Itoi, “Freedom from Free,” Sphinx, 2021, available online at https://blog.sphinx.chat/2021/02/12/freedom-from-free.