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Show HN: No Coin – A browser extension to block coin miners

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Re: Show HN: No Coin – A browser extension to block coin miners

#92
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

CPU mining is so unprofitable, but I suppose with thousands of users..

Not for XMR. There's quite a few altcoins out there aiming to solve the asic problem with aggressively anti-asic algorithms.

There is an interesting position that asic mining is the most democratic and decentralized way. The easier and simpler and cheaper a miner is to produce, the more accessible it is and likely that companies can manufacture and distribute it, turning it into a commodity. Complex proofs that require cpu's, for example, hand a permanent monopoly to Intel and friends. When the nanometer race ends in a few product generations (as we reach the limits of physics), the more commoditized silicon will become, and the more likely we can get a miner for a couple of bucks at the grocery store, or embed it in devices, etc. - making it truly decentralized.

Re: Show HN: No Coin – A browser extension to block coin miners

#93
post #55

Is there a way to exploit the miner scripts? I mean in a way: Never trust the client? If the proof is calculated on the client, how does the server confirm that the proof is correct?

Generally, checking the solution is trivial. Hashing billions of hashings to find what you want is want takes resources.

So when I intercept the script and send a bad proof back, it would not do any harm? So no https://xkcd.com/327/ for the bad miners? I guess, we need browser extensions that just send the correct proof to my own wallet then?

Re: Show HN: No Coin – A browser extension to block coin miners

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In uBlock you can just click the big off button and then click it on again. I see that No Coin has a 'disable for 1 minute' button, which is slightly different, but probably not worth a separate extension for most people. https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/How-to-whitelist-a-we...

OTOH I'm ok with ads, but not ok with miners. So wouldn't make sense have an ad blocker that doesn't block ads. People seems allergic to browser extensions this days. I also get the "why is this an extension and not a filter?" on a non ad-related extension.

There is no ad blockers

There are blockers which can use lists, some of those lists might contain ad domains, some of those lists might contain miner domains.

Re: Show HN: No Coin – A browser extension to block coin miners

#95

Today I read that The Pirate Bay tested this new form of monetization (running a miner in you browser). I thought that might solve website monetization finally. We still have to figure out stuff like battery draining on mobile but it is the first step and I can buy some Monero which is well suited for JS/CPU mining (or in other words, it doesn't have a huge upside when mined on GPUs). And what do I see here? That bef…

That's like saying that regular ad posters on the wall, when someone reads them, are okay to borrow your coat, shoes, and cell phone while you stay in that room.

Re: Show HN: No Coin – A browser extension to block coin miners

#96
It's funny because just yesterday I was at a hackathon and made AddCoinPlus [1], a browser extension that uses a very tiny bit of your CPU to mine for non-profits of your choice. People really loved it because it is your choice to do so or not, it's not a website making your CPU work for their own profit.

[1]: http://addcoinplus.com/

Re: Show HN: No Coin – A browser extension to block coin miners

#97
post #84

Today I read that The Pirate Bay tested this new form of monetization (running a miner in you browser). I thought that might solve website monetization finally. We still have to figure out stuff like battery draining on mobile but it is the first step and I can buy some Monero which is well suited for JS/CPU mining (or in other words, it doesn't have a huge upside when mined on GPUs). And what do I see here? That bef…

I'd rather pay with my wallet than with my battery. And I'll pay only what I buy. Lock me out if I don't pay, or tell me to GTFO, and I'm totally fine with it, but you can't pick my hypotethical-pocket because I opened up your page. This is like charging window-shoppers. And like a sibling comment says, if this catches on, most web sites will do both, i.e. ads + client-side mining. One nice day publishing industry wi…

yeah right..

Re: Show HN: No Coin – A browser extension to block coin miners

#98

Wait, people are actually doing this? Using client-side resources not to deliver content or applications to clients, or even to visibly deliver things like advertisements, but to divert user CPU cycles for their own purposes? I want to know more about this. Are they seeking any kind of consent from the users, or even disclosing it to the users? If not, I have serious doubts about the legality of this behavior.

This was studied a few years ago as "parasitic computing":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitic_computing

But it's a bit strange that the same broad concept can include subtle things where the indirect result of an activity is a computation that someone else wanted you to make, along with explicit cases where someone asks your device to run a full-fledged applet and it does so (to someone else's benefit).

Re: Show HN: No Coin – A browser extension to block coin miners

#99

Today I read that The Pirate Bay tested this new form of monetization (running a miner in you browser). I thought that might solve website monetization finally. We still have to figure out stuff like battery draining on mobile but it is the first step and I can buy some Monero which is well suited for JS/CPU mining (or in other words, it doesn't have a huge upside when mined on GPUs). And what do I see here? That bef…

Here was a HN post about it over 6 years ago. It's not new. (noting it was bitcoin and not something like Monero)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2566365

Re: Show HN: No Coin – A browser extension to block coin miners

#100
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd rather pay with my wallet than with my battery. And I'll pay only what I buy. Lock me out if I don't pay, or tell me to GTFO, and I'm totally fine with it, but you can't pick my hypotethical-pocket because I opened up your page. This is like charging window-shoppers. And like a sibling comment says, if this catches on, most web sites will do both, i.e. ads + client-side mining. One nice day publishing industry wi…

yeah right..

If you have some criticism, please share with the class. As it is, I can't even tell what you're being dismissive of.
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