Cap: The Lightweight Open-Source CAPTCHA Alternative Using Proof-of-Work

Cap: A Lightweight Open-Source CAPTCHA Alternative Using Proof-of-Work Introduction: The Evolution and Challenges of CAPTCHAs In today’s digital landscape, CAPTCHAs (Completely Automated Public Turing tests to tell Computers and Humans Apart) face three critical challenges: user experience fluidity, privacy compliance, and effectiveness against AI. Traditional solutions like reCAPTCHA or hCaptcha, while widely adopted, face criticism due to their large size (300-400KB average), reliance on user tracking, and complex image recognition requirements. Enter Cap—an open-source verification system using SHA-256 Proof-of-Work (PoW). At just 12KB minified (250x smaller than hCaptcha), with zero data tracking and elegant cryptographic verification, it redefines human-bot authentication. …