The economics of abuse
How much are you losing to free-credit farming?
Free-credit abuse is an economic problem. Wherever a grant has real variable cost (signup credits, API keys, trials, or other inbound actions), every successful farmed attempt has a price. Rate limits and bot controls may reduce volume, but the useful question is simpler: how much is getting through, and what is it costing you? Use the calculator to estimate. Use the baseline to measure.
Estimate your exposure
Estimated free-credit burn
$270
/ month at these inputs (not observed loss)
What would Chitmark cost at this volume?
$0/ month
~9,000 verifies/month are within the first 10,000.
Estimated burn is $270/month at these inputs, and Chitmark is $0 at this volume. If that burn isn't material, stop.
Annualized estimate at these inputs: $3,240
Hypothetical inputs you control; nothing is sent anywhere. This is an estimate, not a measurement. An "action" is any costly inbound grant: signup, API key, trial start, or similar. Chitmark cost uses published Pro tiers (see pricing), assuming one verify per action.
farming side
Operators price every control
One operator, one script, many identities. Costs: proxies, solver services, compute. Revenue: resold credits, free-tier capacity, referral bonuses. Every control you add is a line item they re-price. If the cost of farming stays below the value of the grant, farming keeps running.
your side
Farmed grants cost you twice
First in credits farming burns. Then in capacity and support when paying users share the pool with farmed traffic. Most funnels never write down the conversion rate once fake grants are removed from the growth count.
what a challenge does
Put cost on the action
A useful challenge is cheap for one legitimate user and expensive when repeated at farming scale. That is what Chitmark issues on uncertain actions: proof-of-work or payment preauth. Allowed actions get a signed receipt. Denied actions do not consume the grant.
Cost to the user vs farming economics
| Control | Cost to legitimate user | Farming economics |
|---|---|---|
Free tier | You absorb the grant | Cost scales with successful grants |
CAPTCHA | Time / interaction | Can often be automated or outsourced |
Rate limits | May constrain legitimate bursts | Distributed identities can spread activity |
Proof of work (Chitmark challenge) | Small client-side compute cost | Compute accumulates across attempts |
Payment preauth (Chitmark challenge) | Payment instrument required | Each attempt requires a financial instrument |
Pricing the action is half the loop. The other half is learning what each action was worth afterwards: how outcomes tune the next decision. Or skip the reading: run a verdict in the playground.