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Comment by tschwimmer | Hacker News Reader

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tschwimmer·

Check out Anubis - it's not quite what you're suggesting but similar in concept: https://anubis.techaro.lol/

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How does it work? I don’t have time to read the code, and the website/docs seem to be under construction.

Does it have the client do a bunch of SHA-256 hashes?

Yeah it's like hashcash. You have to try random numbers until you roll a hash with enough leading zeroes. Then you get a cookie (JWT I think) that's valid for a week.

SHA2 can run on ASICs and isn't memory-hard, so I'm hoping someone will add something tougher

Interesting! Not how I'd approach it but certainly thinking along the same lines.

I just hit a site with this --- and hit the back button immediately.

Better than a 500 error

Also better than a third party service IMO because of the privacy implications. You could even potentially give users the choice (complete overkill but technically you could do it).

Maybe once you can use something more professional as an interstitial page

From the announcement page: https://xeiaso.net/blog/2025/anubis/

> RPM packages and unbranded (or customly branded) versions are available if you contact me and purchase commercial support. Otherwise your users have to see a happy anime girl every time they solve a challenge. This is a feature.

I'm going to be making distro packages and binaries public. I will have to figure out white label monetization I guess.

It's open source with MIT license, so you should be able to remove those images yourself if you want.

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