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Hmm, that's a good point, I wonder how phone numbers are actually stored? As it's sensitive personal data, it would make sense to encrypt it and just store some hashed version of it that couldn't be reverse engineered from the blockchain. And the only valid use for it should be limited to blocking multiple account creation attempts.

Oops something is wrong after upgrade, I could not edit my comment. I just wanted to add that since pseudonymous accounts are mined by witnesses what will stop the gpu miner to mine another 30k if needed?

I don't think that is really the problem they are trying to solve. The phone authentication is just for the Steemit.com signups where the user gets free Steem in their account for signing up. If users want to create multiple accounts through mining, AnonSteem, or some other means that doesn't use the free Steem, they are still welcome to do so.

Unfortunate but true - I'm not sure how else we can keep giving away accounts with preloaded value without it being abused otherwise. Anonymous is still an option if you mine or purchase the account with anonsteem - but these don't drain the faucet in exchange for fake facebook accounts