Comment by janalsncm

I think I understand why Google wants to do this, and I think I understand why people are opposed to this particular solution.

It’s also worth noting that the author of this article is selling a proof of work solution to the problem.

I am fairly skeptical that proof of work is the right way to go here. A lot of users of the web are using older hardware. Adding a computational toll booth doesn't solve the problem in a world where people have differing amounts of compute to spend.

On the other hand, a botnet might have access to thousands of computers and may not actually care about waiting an extra 10 seconds. Or worse, they will come up with a custom solution on an ASIC that solves your proof of work puzzle thousands of times faster than grandma‘s laptop.