[2019]
"Open Privacy is starting to explore additions to the Cwtch ecosystem that both strengthen the incentives to run untrusted infrastructure, while maintaining anonymity for peers and servers. The initial stage of this involved moving Cwtch away from Ricochet as the underlying protocol for Peer <-> Server communications to a homegrown framework called Tapir.
Tapir already features a more robust authentication protocol than the original Ricochet, and will soon feature a new cryptographic protocol for separating the current proof-of-work (PoW) based spam prevention into a new exchange based on PrivacyPass. In exchange for completing a proof-of-work challenge the peer will be allowed to engage in a protocol to obtain signed (and blinded) tokens that they can then exchange with the service at a later date to post new messages.
Towards Anonymous Prepaid Services
However, peer PoW does little to incentivize the hosting of new Cwtch Servers . That is why we are now exploring options that would allow Cwtch servers to accept payment in exchange for tokens instead.
This would provide a way for servers to recover hosting costs through accepting pre-payment for the services it provides in a way that is privacy preserving."
https://openprivacy.ca/blog/2019/12/03/Incentivizing-Trustlessness-ZcashFoundation-Donation/
"Open Privacy is starting to explore additions to the Cwtch ecosystem that both strengthen the incentives to run untrusted infrastructure, while maintaining anonymity for peers and servers. The initial stage of this involved moving Cwtch away from Ricochet as the underlying protocol for Peer <-> Server communications to a homegrown framework called Tapir.
Tapir already features a more robust authentication protocol than the original Ricochet, and will soon feature a new cryptographic protocol for separating the current proof-of-work (PoW) based spam prevention into a new exchange based on PrivacyPass. In exchange for completing a proof-of-work challenge the peer will be allowed to engage in a protocol to obtain signed (and blinded) tokens that they can then exchange with the service at a later date to post new messages.
Towards Anonymous Prepaid Services
However, peer PoW does little to incentivize the hosting of new Cwtch Servers . That is why we are now exploring options that would allow Cwtch servers to accept payment in exchange for tokens instead.
This would provide a way for servers to recover hosting costs through accepting pre-payment for the services it provides in a way that is privacy preserving."
https://openprivacy.ca/blog/2019/12/03/Incentivizing-Trustlessness-ZcashFoundation-Donation/