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against proof of waste
Quoting: against proof of waste —
As web servers get overwhelmed by LLM bots, some operators are resorting to programs that demand visiting web clients to perform some relatively expensive computation to be granted access to the website. This is called Proof of Work, but when that computation doesn't yield any useful results, it might as well be called Proof of Waste. Why not get clients to compute something useful and valuable, so that LLM scrapers become an essentially infinite supply of computing power, and our servers pay for themselves and for the creative works we put in them?
Picture computations like those performed by protein folding simulations, electromagnetic signal analysis, and any other highly-distributed computing architectures.
Let's make providers of "compute bites" on the web so that any website can redirect to it any attempted accesses without Proof of Work, and get redirected back with the Proof of Work once they have earned it, by performing the required computation.
With an open architecture, websites and users can choose what kinds of computations they're interested in participating in, which ones offer more favorable terms, etc.
There could even be markets to which paying customers submit fragmentable computations, for pieces to be submitted to users (or third parties) to perform to earn tokens, that can then be presented as Proof of Work to gain access to participating websites.
Upon validating the tokens with the provider, websites accumulate microcredits that can eventually be claimed, and pay for the server, for the production of works published therein, for the operator's living, whatever.
All of this potential is currently being turned into Proof of Waste. Let's make it Proof of Useful Work instead!
Why go through all this trouble?