Pay as you browse: microcomputations as micropayments in web-based services

Currently, several online businesses deem that advertising revenues alone are not sufficient to generate profits and are therefore set to charge for online content. In this paper, we explore a complement to the current advertisement model; more specifically, we propose a micropayment model for non-specialized commodity web-services based on microcomputations. In our model, a user that wishes to access online content offered by a website does not need to register or pay to access the website; instead, he will accept to run microcomputations on behalf of the website in exchange for access to the content. These microcomputations can, for example, support ongoing computing projects that have clear social benefits (e.g., projects relating to HIV, dengue, cancer, etc.) or can contribute towards commercial computing projects. We argue that this micropayment model is economically and technically viable and that it can be integrated in existing distributed computing frameworks (e.g., the BOINC platform). We implement a preliminary prototype of a system based on our model through which we evaluate its performance and usability. Finally, we analyze the security and privacy of our proposal and we show that it ensures payment for the content while preserving the privacy of users.

[1]  Gage Js,et al.  The great Internet Mersenne prime search. , 1998 .

[2]  J. S. Gage.  The great Internet Mersenne prime search. , 1998, M.D. computing : computers in medical practice.

[3]  Jennifer Seberry,et al.  Covert Distributed Computing Using Java Through Web Spoofing , 1998, ACISP.

[4]  A. Barabasi,et al.  Parasitic computing , 2001, Nature.

[5]  Philippe Golle,et al.  Uncheatable Distributed Computations , 2001, CT-RSA.

[6]  Doug Szajda,et al.  Hardening functions for large scale distributed computations , 2003, 2003 Symposium on Security and Privacy, 2003..

[7]  R. Lukose,et al.  DataBank: An Economics Based Privacy Preserving System for Distributing Relevant Advertising and Content , 2006 .

[8]  Niels Provos,et al.  The Ghost in the Browser: Analysis of Web-based Malware , 2007, HotBots.

[9]  Michael T. Goodrich.  Pipelined algorithms to detect cheating in long-term grid computations , 2008, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[10]  Ghassan O. Karame,et al.  Secure Remote Execution of Sequential Computations , 2009, ICICS.

[11]  John Langford,et al.  CentMail: Rate Limiting via Certified Micro-Donations , 2009 .

[12]  Helen Nissenbaum,et al.  Adnostic: Privacy Preserving Targeted Advertising , 2010, NDSS.

[13]  Peter Eckersley,et al.  How Unique Is Your Web Browser? , 2010, Privacy Enhancing Technologies.

[14]  Craig Gentry,et al.  Non-interactive Verifiable Computing: Outsourcing Computation to Untrusted Workers , 2010, CRYPTO.

[15]  Ghassan O. Karame,et al.  Low-Cost Client Puzzles Based on Modular Exponentiation , 2010, ESORICS.