Quote from: greBit on September 01, 2013, 10:15:07 AM

Please correct me if I am wrong...

[POW]

Proof of work acts as a limiter on the ability of someone to post a message over a broadcast channel.

It serves to deter SPAM.
By making it more expensive to send a message, it acts as a way to reduce the number of messages sent over a channel, reducing the bandwidth+storage costs of each node.

The POW difficulty need not be static but could adapt dynamically in an effort to constrain the bandwidth + storage requirements of each node to some fixed level

One could have different POW requirements for each channel

I would discourage the use of the word "channel" because it's vague and conflicts with "chan," or "shared address," a decentralized multiparty communication method.

Proof of work acts as a limiter on the ability of someone to send any type of message, period. This includes under-the-hood messages like pubkey messages.

It serves to deter FLOODING. Spam should be handled client-side, for example by using Thunderbird.

By making it more expensive to send a message, it acts as a way to reduce the number of messages sent ~~over a channel~~ over the p2p network, reducing the bandwidth+storage costs of each node and protecting the network from flooding-based DoS attacks.

One could have different POW requirements for each ~~channel~~ mailing list, address, or stream.

Quote from: bitpop on September 01, 2013, 10:23:17 AM

Question about streams, there's only 1 now. When are more added?

When the devs decide on how best to implement streams, then implement them. See stream discussion index.