Author Topic: Pirate Bay, Showtime caught forcing visitors to mine cryptocurrency for them  (Read 548 times)

Online riso

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 6342
  • Gender: Male
  • Beta tester Tech support dedicated 110%
    • windows 10 news and info | Forum - Blog
In an effort to monetize colossal visitor numbers, websites have begun to utilize their visitors' PCs for the lucrative business of cryptocurrency mining, sparking outrage and raising the question of whether users will stand for it. Pirate Bay, the world’s most popular torrent site, visited by an estimated 50 million people each month, claimed it was running a “test” earlier this month when it was caught paralyzing users’ computers by using their processing power to mine Monero, a fast-growing cryptocurrency without their users' consent.
“As you may have noticed we are testing a Monero javascript miner. This is only a test. We really want to get rid of all the ads. But we also need enough money to keep the site running,” read the Pirate Bay statement.
“Let us know what you think in the comments. Do you want ads or do you want to give away a few of your CPU cycles every time you visit the site? Of course the mining can be blocked by a normal ad-blocker.”



Mining – conducting complex mathematical operations that log and verify the operation of virtual currencies – brings in profits in the form of accounting service payments, and gives the miner a randomized chance to 'mint' a new coin, which can result in a windfall profit.
For the users being piggybacked on, there are only drawbacks. As their processors are occupied in the mining process, their computers work slowly, their components wear out and their electricity bills rise.
Nonetheless, at least some of Pirate Bay’s users, and others responding to articles on the issue, said they would accept having their computers used for mining instead of paying subscription fees and being subjected to online ads, but not without their explicit consent, however.
Meanwhile, those who are wary of suspicious websites abusing their PCs can install ad-blockers and more specialized apps to prevent the mining codes from being activated.
Source and Pics: rt.com