New dependency: easypow (PBKDF2-SHA512 challenges, bundled JS solver).
Sends are PoW-gated: registration/resync and every accepted message
come with a fresh single-use challenge (~5 s solve), held in per-socket
RAM state only — nothing in the database. A message burns one
solution; a missing, stale or spent solution is dropped and answered
with a fresh 'required' challenge. The bundled browser solver is
served at /_contact/easypow.js straight from the installed package, so
client and validator versions always match.
Uploads are deliberately not PoW-gated (the transfer rate is the real
cost). Instead, uploads are tracked as pending per session and a quota
caps pending files at 10 — answered 429, not 403, which could trip
auth flows. A sent message strikes the files it references off the
pending set; when the session's last socket closes, the remaining
pending files are deleted from the store.