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There has to be some not-yet-discovered way to have a capcha that is easy for any human but impossible for robot. Too bad capchas hurt user experience no matter

There has to be some not-yet-discovered way to have a capcha that is easy for any human but impossible for robot. Too bad capchas hurt user experience no matter how easy they are. Another solution I came up with while reading HN comments: whitelist IPs instead blacklisting. Give access to well-behaving hosts/groups. It can even be shared across different sites. Although this would create a market for selling "good IP" proxies.

brownkonas 17d ago
The reverse turing test :(
echelon 17d ago
Even better: make people pay for access or vouch to give access to a third party.
- ivanjermakov 17d ago
  Some kind of proof of stake might be viable. "I as a visitor stake 1 cent that I'm a genuine user and not a sloppy bot, server is free to withdraw my stake if it's not true". If works, withdrawn money can be used to cover hosting costs.
zythyx 17d ago
There are definitely ways of proving you're a human, unfortunately it also means giving up your privacy and anonymity (IRL ID Checks combined with appropriate routing and validation - even going as far as certifying the browser being used) Obviously though none of us want to give that up, so the alternative is that we can almost never 'prove' we are human especially with bots getting as smart or smarter than the average redditor.
- Barbing 17d ago
  Imagine proving you have no financial incentive to get on the whitelist. Reminded of the mules renting Airbnbs to use as USA-based delivery locations (tricking grandma into FedExing cash for one scam or another) - https://getrichslowly.org/scambaiters https://getrichslowly.org/scambaiters (probably Jim Browning + Mark Rober specifically https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xvjjpzyiig4 https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xvjjpzyiig4 ) But! Using a network of real ID-checked humans to scrape the web, what would that be--half a billion times harder than Firecrawl or whatever they use today? Too bad it's dead in the water today because so many (like me) hate the idea so much. Perhaps a biometric dongle (retinal-scanning orb :-/ ) that the staunchest privacy hawks stamp with their seals of approval because it's somehow nearly impossible to go horribly horribly... horribly... wrong... Yeah, anybody who can crack this issue, hope you have the free time or find the funding to try it, we need ya.
  - desterothx 17d ago
    I vote for a finger pricker that tests the blood composition everytime I want to look up the nearest open grocery store
mkl 17d ago
> There has to be some not-yet-discovered way to have a capcha that is easy for any human but impossible for robot. Why? We are not so special or magical.
MetaWhirledPeas 17d ago
> whitelist IPs instead blacklisting I think I agree with this. There will be difficulties though: - Will likely have to be pay-to-play. No point in whitelisting IPs if you are bombarded with whitelist requests by a bot. - Will come with the assurance that any bot traffic will result in an IP ban. - Will rule out people with dynamic IP addresses. - Will be difficult to gain new users.

brownkonas 17d ago

The reverse turing test :(

echelon 17d ago

Even better: make people pay for access or vouch to give access to a third party.

ivanjermakov 17d ago
Some kind of proof of stake might be viable. "I as a visitor stake 1 cent that I'm a genuine user and not a sloppy bot, server is free to withdraw my stake if it's not true". If works, withdrawn money can be used to cover hosting costs.

zythyx 17d ago

There are definitely ways of proving you're a human, unfortunately it also means giving up your privacy and anonymity (IRL ID Checks combined with appropriate routing and validation - even going as far as certifying the browser being used) Obviously though none of us want to give that up, so the alternative is that we can almost never 'prove' we are human especially with bots getting as smart or smarter than the average redditor.

Barbing 17d ago
Imagine proving you have no financial incentive to get on the whitelist. Reminded of the mules renting Airbnbs to use as USA-based delivery locations (tricking grandma into FedExing cash for one scam or another) - https://getrichslowly.org/scambaiters https://getrichslowly.org/scambaiters (probably Jim Browning + Mark Rober specifically https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xvjjpzyiig4 https://youtube.com/watch?v=Xvjjpzyiig4 ) But! Using a network of real ID-checked humans to scrape the web, what would that be--half a billion times harder than Firecrawl or whatever they use today? Too bad it's dead in the water today because so many (like me) hate the idea so much. Perhaps a biometric dongle (retinal-scanning orb :-/ ) that the staunchest privacy hawks stamp with their seals of approval because it's somehow nearly impossible to go horribly horribly... horribly... wrong... Yeah, anybody who can crack this issue, hope you have the free time or find the funding to try it, we need ya.
- desterothx 17d ago
  I vote for a finger pricker that tests the blood composition everytime I want to look up the nearest open grocery store

mkl 17d ago

> There has to be some not-yet-discovered way to have a capcha that is easy for any human but impossible for robot. Why? We are not so special or magical.

MetaWhirledPeas 17d ago

> whitelist IPs instead blacklisting I think I agree with this. There will be difficulties though: - Will likely have to be pay-to-play. No point in whitelisting IPs if you are bombarded with whitelist requests by a bot. - Will come with the assurance that any bot traffic will result in an IP ban. - Will rule out people with dynamic IP addresses. - Will be difficult to gain new users.