Can we create a “postage stamp” system for e-mail and eliminate spam by making it cost too much to send it?
It seems extremely unlikely. In order to successfully handle postage on every e-mail sent today, someone would have to build an electronic payment system that is 10-100 times bigger than the biggest payment processors in the world, and suceed in making a profit on transactions of just a few cents each. See John Levine’s paper on e-postage for more details.
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