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from the got-to-pay-for-those-adverts-somehow dept.
The news outlet Salon is allowing Adblock-using visitors to opt-in to using the JavaScript-based Coinhive tool to mine the cryptocurrency Monero:
Other sites have used cryptocurrency mining in lieu of (or in addition to) advertising. Sometimes, it's done surreptitiously without users' consent — The Pirate Bay admitted to secretly adding Coinhive integration last year, and hackers have planted mining malware on other sites. In this case, it's an opt-in program; a spokesperson tells FT that testing started on Monday.
Salon has an FAQ explaining this move.
Also at Ars Technica.
Related: Showtime Streaming Service Included JavaScript to Mine Cryptocurrency Using Web Browsers
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Wi-Fi at Starbucks Buenos Aires Has Computers Mine Crypto-Currency
Bitcoin Hype Pushes Hackers to Lesser-Known Cryptocurrencies
Thousands of Websites Hijacked by Hidden Crypto-Mining Code After Popular Plugin Pwned
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @03:23PM (23 children)
While this might seem silly, I'm ok with them doing this as long as they are upfront with it.
Admittedly, JS miners are probably the least efficient of them all, but if media needs a new way to support themselves, asking visitors to have their computers work for them seems an easier sell than online subscriptions, and more honest than ads, IMO.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @03:46PM (5 children)
If a company can mine shitcoins instead of ads, they'll mine shitcoins as well as ads.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @04:02PM
Yes, this is true.
(Score: 1) by Paradise Pete on Wednesday February 14 2018, @04:17PM (2 children)
That depends. If not running ads mean sufficiently more visitors and more mining, then they won't run ads. It wouldn't make sense.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by frojack on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:44PM (1 child)
Seriously?
When have you ever seen them back off running ads? Even in the face of rampant adblockers they just kept piling on more ads.
Remember that these sites incur zero costs when running ads. They don't pay that bandwidth, they just include a link to an advertising network. They don't even have lot of say about the type of ads.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by Paradise Pete on Saturday February 17 2018, @05:17PM
Was my post not clear? If running more ads means sufficiently less mining, then it would be counter-productive to run more ads. You and a few moderators did not understand this?
(Score: 2) by chromas on Thursday February 15 2018, @01:48AM
True, but Adblock. I'd be more inclined to let a site inefficiently mine a buttcoin than deactivate uBlock for it (where 0>0).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by melikamp on Wednesday February 14 2018, @03:56PM (7 children)
So instead of fucking our eyeballs and gray cells, they are gonna fuck our cpus, buses, and network?
I said it before, and I'll say it again: fuck JavaScript. Fuck it not as a language, but as an ecosystem. All JS drive-by-downloading needs to be urgently replaced by standardized calls to locally-installed free+libre software library.
And if you think that this initial stage of outrage will somehow stem the tide of cycle theft, think again. (And yes, it's a real theft of my joules, not like a pretend theft of Micky Mouse's likeness, because if they use my cycles, I can't use them anymore.) Once the initial wave of whattafuck settles down, EVERY commercial site will start mining like that. They will obfuscate the code properly, so that it's not apparent what it does, and there's not gonna be a jack shit you can do about it, except install a NoScript equivalent, which seems to be the only thing that works against this user abuse.
Perhaps eventually consumers will realize they need to demand every business to provide a 100% standard compliant HTTP+CSS front which works with a free+libre renderer, but things will get a lot worse before they get better.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @04:29PM
"Instead"? The ads are already fucking our cpus, buses, and network. Not to mention fucking our offline data and wallets through viruses, ransomware, and other malware spread by ad networks.
Both cryptominer and ads use ridiculous amount of resources, but a cryptominer removes malware-infested dependency on ad networks, and spares your eyeballs and gray cells. It's not a good choice, but it's a drastic improvement nevertheless.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday February 14 2018, @05:23PM (2 children)
A lot easier to replace the metal-cpu than the meat-cpu...
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:50PM (1 child)
Well Folding At Home has the capacitors on my Mobo all bulgeing because my GPU is pulling so much power through the PCI bus.
I'm now shopping for a replacement mobo - or a new machine.
With 6 or 10 browser tabs trying to monopolize my CPU cores I can see serious hardware penalties, not to mention increasing sluggish machine.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by chromas on Thursday February 15 2018, @01:45AM
You should probably plug in the 6-pin power connector.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by crafoo on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:02PM
If the coming abuse ends javascript I say they should step it up. Javascript was a mistake. Anything that makes it annoying to the common user is a huge win.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday February 15 2018, @05:58AM (1 child)
Good luck getting end users to port said "locally-installed free+libre software library" to their preferred desktop and mobile operating systems.
(Score: 2) by melikamp on Thursday February 15 2018, @08:02AM
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @04:05PM (2 children)
Instead of addressing why their revenue model wasn't working they'll now wear down your GPU or CPU fans instead of infecting you with malware. The issue with ads is not ads, it's the kind of ads and the lack of accountability. You wouldn't buy food from a company that previously "accidentally" included a shot of cyanide in their produce, yet this is totally A-OK with ads.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday February 14 2018, @05:26PM
I don't know about that. We accept salmonella infested poultry.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:57PM
Its also the sheer number of ads. Its the fact that the ads take up more network bandwidth and CPU than the content you were surfing for.
And on top of that all the pointless tracking from one site to the next.
Its not the fans I'm worried about.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by richtopia on Wednesday February 14 2018, @04:53PM (4 children)
I think it is time to start the next Paetron. People are willing to "pay" for content, but for a website the effective value of a view should be around a cent. Unfortunately any formal credit card transaction with a website is risk prone and time consuming, not to mention the credit card fees would kill small transactions. If there was a fast way to throw a couple pennies at a site when viewing I believe many people would opt into that.
(Score: 2) by everdred on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:45PM
This kind of sounds like Flattr [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:47PM (2 children)
It's under construction at http://yours.org/ [yours.org].
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:59PM (1 child)
That's just another mining scheme.
A true micro payment system would only need a tenth or a hundredth of a cent per visit to make money.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Thursday February 15 2018, @02:05PM
What? How is that mining?
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @10:32PM
Can a js miner even do much, in a browser running on a cpu?