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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.
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Thousands of Websites Hijacked by Hidden Crypto-Mining Code After Popular Plugin Pwned
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 14 2018, @06:54PM (1 child)
The funny thing is how will they tell the difference between visitors with very slow CPUs (old, mobile etc) and visitors who are throttling the mining greatly?
Do you have to mine a minimum amount before you get to view stuff? If you do then some people will weaker machines may be left out.
It'll be interesting if this actually evolves to sites getting to use your hardware in more efficient and direct ways for mining (JS is very inefficient), instead of people actually mining or buying cryptocurrency and using it to pay to view the site.
(Score: 2) by nobu_the_bard on Wednesday February 14 2018, @07:20PM
Heh. This sounds dangerously like a road that leads to needing to provide quality content to attract miners with the best hardware or internet connections.