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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

#171

Post by tokenizerrr »

3131s wrote: post #168
tokenizerrr wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure thing. I can also block whatever crap I don't want running in my browser so I'll be doing that. Just giving feedback.

The real environmental cost of ads is when people actually buy the useless shit being advertised. Also, you definitely have a strange attitude toward mining cryptocoins client-side and are engaging in many assumptions and false notions (that 100% of CPU will be used, that ad-tracking doesn't use just as many cycles, that it's not opt-in, etc.)

It's actually quite simple, any website that makes my laptop fans spin up gets closed out. None of the websites with ads trigger this behavior. The cryptominers do. If you look at actual CPU usage you will notice the obvious difference.

This makes sense, since the entire idea of crypto currency mining is to use CPU cycles to mine the crypto currency. While ads is just some basic tracking and graphics.

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

#172

Post by xelxebar »

mintplant wrote: post #166
thinbeige wrote: post #60

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…

Sorry, no, you can't burn my CPU cycles and drain my battery for money. Full stop, end of story, thanks for playing, etc, etc. I still own my computer, and I couldn't care less about your innovative new business model. Just, no.

While I sort of share this sentiment, it fails to acknowledge that BC mining is potentially a better use of our CPU cycles than feeding morally dubious ad networks.

As long as someone is upfront about the whole thing, I would honestly not mind. It feels like an improvement over the current status quo.

In fact, since CPU cycles are so easy to give away, I'd probably end up doing so more readily than having to pull out my wallet and run through the hassle of registration and payment.

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

#173

Post by wdr1 »

phailhaus wrote: post #170
mintplant wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, no, you can't burn my CPU cycles and drain my battery for money. Full stop, end of story, thanks for playing, etc, etc. I still own my computer, and I couldn't care less about your innovative new business model. Just, no.

Yeah but you're not entitled to use their server's resources for free. If you're not okay with them running a miner while you use their site, don't use their site. I'm okay with this approach as long as they are transparent about it.

It seems equivalent to ad blocking.

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

#174

Post by chii »

flashman wrote: post #110
thinbeige wrote: post #60

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…

Website owners are free to attempt this business model. I am free to choose what code runs on my machine. Every business model has trade-offs, and no model guarantees income.

There's one model that guarantees income: the subscription model.

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

#175

Post by chii »

phailhaus wrote: post #169
outoftacos wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Solution" wow, just step back a second here, I never signed up for advertisements AT ALL, much less background CPU miners for shady schemes. Solution is the last word to use, there is no problem first off and malware is not how you would solve this fantasy of a "problem".

You have to remember that you're not entitled to their server resources. If you are not okay with a CPU miner, then don't use their site. I'm okay with this as long as they are 100% transparent about their monetization scheme.

> don't use their site

Or, use their site, but the end user always dictate the code that runs on their own machine. If the server don't wish for a user to skimp the mining, make them submit the proof of work result first, then serve the content.

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

#176

Post by Gaelan »

mattnewton wrote: post #42
IamCarbonMan wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WebAssembly with OpenGL could change this.

I don't know what they would have to be mining to make cpu's or integrated GPU's make sense, certainly not bitcoin where even if you pay nothing for electricity to are unlikely to be able to do any useful work in the time someone visits your site.

They’re mining Monero.

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

#177

Post by rdiddly »

Tried the Chrome extension, but it just toggles between "Enable No Coin" and "Unpause No Coin." I didn't disable it, but I have to enable it? Repeatedly? And I didn't pause it, so why would I be unpausing it? Where do I look if I merely want to find out whether it is currently 1) enabled and/or 2) paused? And how do I toggle either or both of those? Does it need to be this complicated?

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

#178

Post by phailhaus »

wdr1 wrote: post #173
phailhaus wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but you're not entitled to use their server's resources for free. If you're not okay with them running a miner while you use their site, don't use their site. I'm okay with this approach as long as they are transparent about it.

It seems equivalent to ad blocking.

Yeah, and there are sites which will prevent you from viewing their content if you have an ad blocker enabled. That's their prerogative.

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

#179

Post by partiallypro »

thinbeige wrote: post #60

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'm not completely against it, so long as the content provider is transparent about it and as long as it is only active while I am browsing their site and isn't some malware like thing that turns my machine into a zombie. I feel like it would be easy to hijack and hide in a window process though so it just always runs when your browser is running. Even if Pirate Bay, et al doesn't do that...someone will or already has.

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

#180

Post by jacalata »

PrimHelios wrote: post #71
jacalata wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote a grease monkey script that allowed you to annotate a website and save the notes permanently to local storage. It had all of the above features. The only real limitation is the sandboxing.

Do you have a link to the script? Sounds like something I'd use.

I don't think I have a copy since userscripts died, but on cursory inspection this Reddit script looks like it does similar things - http://userscripts-mirror.org/scripts/review/170091
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