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Cardea – Proof-of-Work Comment Spam Protection

Name: Cardea – Proof-of-Work Comment Spam Protection
Author: omikheev

Lightweight, zero-dependency Proof-of-Work anti-spam protection for WordPress comments.

Cardea ranks #64,431 among WordPress.org plugins with 0+ active installations, is #2,602 of 2,900 in the Discussion & Community category, and was last updated Sep 4, 2026. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Compatible with WP 7.1.2

v1.0.2 Current Version v1.0.2

Updated 2 weeks ago Last Update on 04 Sep, 2026

Refreshed 11 hours ago Last Refreshed on

#2,602 of 2,900 in Discussion & Community Actively maintained

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Rank

#64,431

— No change

Active Installs

-100%

KW Avg Position

195

35 worse

Downloads

445

+1 today

Support Resolved

— No change

Rating

Review 0 out of 5

0 (0 reviews)

Next Milestone 10

Total Progress 0%

0+ 10+

44,691

Ranks to Climb

Growth Needed

8,000,000

Active Installs

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Current #64,431

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Active Installs Growth

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Active Installs 0,000,000+

Growth +0.0%

Peak 0,000,000

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Plugin Details

Version: 1.0.2
Last Updated: Sep 04, 2026
Requires WP: 6.0+
Tested Up To: 7.1.2
PHP Version: 7.4 or higher
Author: omikheev

Support & Rating

Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ 0
Reviews: 0
Support Threads: 0
Resolved: 0%

Keywords

anti-spam comments Proof of Work protection spam

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Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Cardea – Proof-of-Work Comment Spam Protection

For legitimate users, the mining happens in the background while they type their comment. Most users won't notice any delay. The default difficulty level (4 zeros) typically takes 1-5 seconds on modern devices.

While no solution is 100% foolproof, this makes automated spam economically unviable. Spammers would need significant CPU resources to submit comments, making mass spam campaigns impractical.

Yes, but the mining may take slightly longer on older or slower mobile devices. You can reduce the difficulty setting if you notice issues.

This plugin primarily protects against automated bots. For human-spammers, consider using additional measures like moderation queues or other anti-spam plugins.

Anonymous comment submissions are gated everywhere. In the comment form, a solved PoW challenge is required. For the REST API (wp/v2/comments), WordPress core already rejects anonymous comment creation with a 401 (rest_comment_login_required); Cardea additionally runs the same PoW verification on rest_pre_insert_comment, so if core ever permits anonymous REST comments, they will still need a solved challenge. Trackbacks, pingbacks, XML-RPC calls, and requests from logged-in users or moderators are not affected. WordPress core does not expose anonymous comment creation over XML-RPC either, so no Cardea hook is needed there.

No, this plugin is 100% local and does not track users. The PoW challenge is generated per-session and is not tied to any user data.

No. The mining happens transparently in the background while users type. Most users won't even notice it happening. The default difficulty is set to provide a good balance between security and user experience.

The comment form will still work, but submissions without a valid PoW solution will be rejected. This is intentional - automated spammers typically don't execute JavaScript.

No! This is a key differentiator. Unlike most security plugins that query the database on every page load, Cardea generates challenges using stateless HMAC signatures. Database writes only occur when a user actually submits a comment, making this ideal for high-traffic sites.