256 MiB
Memory held on the device
Bots win by volume
Identifiers are cheap to mint in volume. That is the strategy.
One actor can open thousands of accounts for almost nothing. Agents make that volume cheaper to run—the strategy is still scale.
Services pay to stop it. Honest users pay in friction.
Phone checks, ID, captchas, big-platform sign-in: each tries to raise the cost of a fake account by raising friction for everyone. The cost of defeating these controls can often be spread across many accounts. A bot operator can reuse a bypass, distribute the solving effort or acquire credentials in volume. The service still pays to screen every sign-up, while honest users experience the friction.
The cost of participation
In an open system, identifiers are cheap to create. If a system treats each identifier as a separate participant, one actor can create many identifiers and manufacture an apparent majority. This is the Sybil problem.
Bitcoin addressed a related problem at the consensus level. Rather than count network addresses, it uses accumulated proof-of-work to determine influence over the shared transaction history.
PCOC applies the same resource-cost principle at the point of issuance. Each self-issued identifier is designed to require its own staged memory commitment. Anyone can independently measure the resulting object against the published specification and the corresponding public Bitcoin data. Each relying service decides whether that measurement is sufficient for admission.
Bitcoin blocks provide the public clock that paces this production. They do not issue the identifier, and Bitcoin’s proof-of-work does not secure or pay for it.
Bitcoin
Accumulated proof-of-work determines influence over the shared history.
PCOC
Each identifier is designed to carry its own measurable production commitment.
PCOC in a nutshell
- Produce an identifier on your device through a staged memory commitment paced by Bitcoin blocks.
- Measure its production record independently against the published specification and public Bitcoin data.
- Decide — the relying service decides whether to admit it under its own policy.
Same object. Independent measurement. Local decision.
Production commitment
~3 hours
Typical production time
18
Stages paced by Bitcoin blocks
Current production profile. Actual duration varies with Bitcoin block arrivals and device performance. How far the intended cost floor holds under bulk production is still being measured.
Where does the scarcity come from?
Scarcity can be supplied outside production, through controlled issuance or by requiring participants to pay with or sacrifice something already scarce. In a Bitcoin-based system, for example, an issued unit might be sold for satoshis or created by burning them.
Alternatively, the production process itself can enforce a resource commitment. PCOC takes this approach.
Make scarcity part of production
A production-constrained observable commitment (PCOC) is a self-issued identifier whose creation requires a physical resource commitment over time.
A device commits memory, holding it in powered hardware while Bitcoin blocks pass. Memory capacity is occupied for the duration of the staged work. The advancing Bitcoin block sequence provides a public time reference. The cost mechanism is that memory held over block time — not a short burst of hashing.
The memory-dependent work is bound to the resulting identifier and its Bitcoin record. Anyone can independently measure the object against the published specification and the corresponding public Bitcoin data.
The commitment is not a payment for the identifier, and no issuer allocates it. It is sustained over time. With a batch anchoring service, the maker needs no wallet or Bitcoin node.
PCOC is designed to make each additional identifier require its own production commitment. The resulting record can be measured independently. Whether this produces the intended cost floor under bulk production is still being measured.
Change the economics of creating identifiers
Existing approaches typically restrict, screen or monitor access to systems. Rate limits restrict activity. CAPTCHAs impose challenges. Computational puzzles, such as Hashcash proof of work, price each identifier with a short burst of computation. Phone verification, identity systems and reputation depend on external checks or authorities.
These controls can be useful, but they do not make every self-issued identifier carry its own independently verifiable physical production cost.
PCOC places that constraint at the point of creation. The commitment is memory held over a stretch of public Bitcoin time, not a burst.
It does not determine who is a person, guarantee one identifier per person, or decide who should be admitted. It makes producing additional identifiers require additional resource and time commitments.
It does not make fake accounts impossible. An attacker can still pay when the return justifies it.
A service remains responsible for its own admission policy. It can decide what level of commitment it accepts and combine that requirement with other controls.
Production commits resources. Verification measures the commitment. Admission remains with the service.
Intended cost structure
Existing controls
A bypass or solving arrangement may be reused across many accounts.
PCOC
Each additional identifier is designed to require a fresh production commitment.
The aim is to put more of the cost into making an identifier than checking it. How far that holds under parallel and bulk production remains an open measurement question.
Cost rises with identifiers (design aim)
- Doors today: break once, reuse many
- PCOC (design aim): cost rises with identifiers
How PCOC is used
Someone produces a PCOC on their own device. A service measures that PCOC and applies its policy. The apps do the producing today. A service measures in one of three ways:
- Sign in on this site uses the hosted gate.
- Run the admission gate on a machine you operate.
- Embed the verifier and apply your own policy.
Explore PCOC
One story, many doors
Each ends in the same place: a cost on each new identifier, checked by anyone, judged by each service.
Open systems
Open protocols and open servers let anyone join, and bots join too. A PCOC lets people join with an identifier they made themselves, and each new identifier is designed to carry its own cost.
Trust and safety
An admission gate keeps sign-up open. Each new sign-up brings a PCOC with a cost of its own, and your policy decides.
Cost asymmetry
The aim is to put the cost into the making rather than into repeated screening.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin is the clock and the anchor. A PCOC is made while blocks pass. With a batch anchoring service, you need no bitcoin, wallet or node.