# Philosophy

Most CAPTCHA systems today are built around surveillance: tracking users, fingerprinting browsers, and collecting data in exchange for access. Cap rejects that model.

Cap is designed around a few core ideas:

- **Privacy by default**: no trackers, no third-party requests, no hidden profiling.
- **Simplicity over complexity**: no image labeling, no click-the-fire-hydrant puzzles.
- **Speed matters**: fast to render, fast to solve, fast to validate.
- **User-first**: designed to be unintrusive and accessible, with invisible and floating modes.
- **Self-hostable, not centralized**: you control the infra, tokens, and behavior.

By using proof-of-work instead of user behavior analysis, Cap shifts the burden from identity to computation. That means anyone can prove they're human without cookies, accounts, or friction.

Cap is what a CAPTCHA should've been all along: **simple, honest, and yours.**