Posted by
danielhorowitz in
Cooperation,
Economics,
Incentives on
June 23rd, 2009 |
View Comments
Who wants to pay for email? You just might. Many people have suggested that adding a nominal cost to e-mail would serve to fight spam by rendering it largely unprofitable. With
Centmail, some Yahoo researchers propose adding a penny postage stamp to each e-mail, representing a penny donation to charity. Since most people already donate to charity, it is not believed that this idea will actually cost anything.
In an effort to make Centmail a reality, a formal protocol and API has already been developed. While I am somewhat worried that a large-scale adoption of the protocol will incentivize significant non-profit and charitable fraud, the economic burden due to spam should be greatly reduced. It's a cool idea by
good people and I urge you to
check it out.
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