Status: the app under spam attack

The Status app is under spam attack. This was revealed by Vitalik Buterin who posted the news on Twitter.

Spam attack currently happening on @ethstatus. Lots of accounts so you can't just block one to make the spam go away. Will be an interesting (and IMO important!) challenge to see how to reliably defend against this sort of thing. pic.twitter.com/91ypW46B4Y

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) September 8, 2020

What is Status?

Before delving into the news, it is worth talking about this application. Status is a messaging app, but also a crypto wallet and browser for dApps (Decentralized Applications). 

Conversations are protected with Waku technology, which is a peer-to-peer messaging protocol that removes third parties and therefore only users have control of the chat.

Attack on Status, how to limit spam on the app

This attack has led to a monstrous amount of new accounts being created. To solve this, a filter should be introduced to figure out who is a real user and who is a bot, and this can only be done with other implementations.

A solution proposed by Buterin itself would be to put a filter for those who have an ENS (Ethereum Name Service), making it too expensive, in terms of time and money, for the spammer to create several accounts. 

Another proposed solution is to create a blacklist and a staking system to be able to write, so only those who have an X amount will be able to interact with the platform.

Voice against spam on social media

A problem that plagues both messaging apps and social media is the ability to create an account without any particular difficulty and this inevitably leads to spam and fake accounts.

Of course there are systems in place to prevent or at least limit this problem. 

For example, the Voice social network, which was also launched in Europe last August, uses a facial recognition identification system and an invitation system that links one real person to another: if one person has passed the KYC procedure and sends an invitation to another, the platform will already know that it is a real user and not a robot.