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This is a really interesting problem for me. And I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that it CAN be fixed. The bad news is you might have to make a legislative compromise to do so.
A while ago, I dreamed up a full solution to verify someone's age entirely anonymously. This is building off of that work. So, when you sign up for an ISP, you will get one "verified" IP address and an alphanumeric code (more on that later), of which, both the IP and the code can be completely changed out monthly for any reason, and an infinite amount of "unverified addresses". Anyone can buy access to the internet entirely anonymously and get an infinite amount of unverified addresses, but in order to get a verified IP address, you need to present government ID when buying the connection.
YES... I know... Just let me cook here for a second. Now, if you have to present government ID to get verified IP addresses, doesn't that mean that that permanently ties your identity to ALL your online activity? Generally no. For one, have it be a law that nobody can see what ID is tied to what IP addresses without a warrant. Or perhaps you could just have it be a law that government is NOT allowed access to that information for any reason. And for the second point... VPNs will still fully work under this system. So if you really don't want to trust the government, period, you don't have to!
There is a central government authority that simply generates the list of verified IPs to give to ISPs and also validates whether an IP address is on that list or not. But wait! How can a VPN user still verify that they are a real human? Well, the human gives that alphanumeric code to the VPN company who can give that to the verified IP address authority who will give a second verified IP address to the VPN company to use. But WAIT. That second verified IP address is tied to the alphanumeric code which is tied to someone's ID. Well that's easy. All the VPN has to do is scramble who gets what verified IP. As long as there are at least two customers for the VPN, the verified IP address authority has no idea what IP addresses they gave went to whom. And if all else fails, there are infinite unverified IP addresses that can be used as a fallback.
Now, is this going to curb ALL bot activity, even on sites that only allow verified IP addresses? No. But it should massively cut it down to be far less of an issue.
A while ago, I dreamed up a full solution to verify someone's age entirely anonymously. This is building off of that work. So, when you sign up for an ISP, you will get one "verified" IP address and an alphanumeric code (more on that later), of which, both the IP and the code can be completely changed out monthly for any reason, and an infinite amount of "unverified addresses". Anyone can buy access to the internet entirely anonymously and get an infinite amount of unverified addresses, but in order to get a verified IP address, you need to present government ID when buying the connection.
YES... I know... Just let me cook here for a second. Now, if you have to present government ID to get verified IP addresses, doesn't that mean that that permanently ties your identity to ALL your online activity? Generally no. For one, have it be a law that nobody can see what ID is tied to what IP addresses without a warrant. Or perhaps you could just have it be a law that government is NOT allowed access to that information for any reason. And for the second point... VPNs will still fully work under this system. So if you really don't want to trust the government, period, you don't have to!
There is a central government authority that simply generates the list of verified IPs to give to ISPs and also validates whether an IP address is on that list or not. But wait! How can a VPN user still verify that they are a real human? Well, the human gives that alphanumeric code to the VPN company who can give that to the verified IP address authority who will give a second verified IP address to the VPN company to use. But WAIT. That second verified IP address is tied to the alphanumeric code which is tied to someone's ID. Well that's easy. All the VPN has to do is scramble who gets what verified IP. As long as there are at least two customers for the VPN, the verified IP address authority has no idea what IP addresses they gave went to whom. And if all else fails, there are infinite unverified IP addresses that can be used as a fallback.
Now, is this going to curb ALL bot activity, even on sites that only allow verified IP addresses? No. But it should massively cut it down to be far less of an issue.
