Just discovered that Apple is using Hashcash in their oauth header for iMessage (and maybe other products?).

https://github.com/beeper/imessage/blob/2c45fc5619cbc33f2441cb07fedb3ca18604ee89/imessage/appleid/hashcash.go

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Discussion

Is it just for preventing spam or is there any other intention?

I suppose a security measure against brute forcing attacks. It can help to filter out general bots too.

But, isn't that wasting power?

Or has Proof of Work got a utility and it actually makes sense to use it?

😏🫂