Comment by codedokode
2 years ago
They could collect a small amount in cryptocurrency to prove user is not a spammer. Telegram tried this but the price for not providing a phone number was too high. Does it mean knowing user's number is so valuable?
2 years ago
They could collect a small amount in cryptocurrency to prove user is not a spammer. Telegram tried this but the price for not providing a phone number was too high. Does it mean knowing user's number is so valuable?
It strikes me as hopelessly naive to think that keeping a personal phone number private is the only reason a user would want to be able to sign up for a service completely anonymously. The question is not whether knowing a user's number is worth $X, the question is whether _anonymous access to your platform_ is worth $X; a question that applies equally to both innocent good-faith users and to spammers/phishers/etc. If your platform is actually worth anything, $X is not going to be a small amount.
And yet many people seem to earnestly believe that a tiny token fee will be enough to deter spam, despite clear evidence to the contrary (see for instance how Twitter's "verification" fee has completely failed to stop bots from overrunning the platform, many of which proudly display their blue checks).
Threema is a paid app and I have never received a spam message on it. I have received spam on Signal, though.