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CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

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Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#161

Post by joosters »

pr0gramm wrote: post #125
csomar wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that mining through the browser is very inefficient. I don't have numbers but it'd probably cost an order of magnitude more, at least, to mine on the browser. And I'm talking about CPU cryptos, forget about bitcoin.

That may be true for Ethereum or Bitcoin, but not for Monero. The Coinhive Monero miner is about 65% as fast as a native miner would be, at least in Browsers that support WASM. Disclaimer: I wrote the Coinhive Monero miner.

How does it feel to see your code getting used worldwide... almost entirely by deceitful scum?

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#162

Post by anc84 »

bhaak wrote: post #153
rdlecler1 wrote: post #117

In the absence of an effective micropayment method, I could see this exchange of mining for content becoming main stream that replaces commercials. The cost to the viewer is ultimately a few cents of electricity, without the need for a bank account information, which the content producer indirectly turns into cash.

Crypto currencies will probably give us usable micropayments and finally enable us to pay content producer in a better way than viewing ads on their page. https://www.nngroup.com/articles/the-case-for-micropayments/ This article by Jakob Nielsen already called for them 20 years ago and if you read it today, it doesn't look like we moved a bit considering ads on websites. The payment overhead with traditional payment…

Come back when there is a crypto currency that is not 99% scam and speculation. Volatility in value and the missing anonymity is what makes Bitcoin etc utterly useless for anything reasonable.

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#164

Post by cesarb »

sumitgt wrote: post #3

Actually, why is this not a potential legitimate business model? I let you stream content for free and you let me mine cryto-coins with your spare CPU cycles while you watch. Isn't that better for people who don't like all the tracking by ads?

> spare CPU cycles

"Spare CPU cycles" were only a thing back in the 90's, when CPUs ran at a fixed frequency, and it didn't make much difference whether it was running useful code or waiting in the idle loop. Nowadays, the frequency and voltage vary depending on whether the CPU is being used or not, so instead of "spare cycles" doing nothing the CPU powers itself down.

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#166

Post by TeMPOraL »

ekianjo wrote: post #159
TeMPOraL wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The cost to the viewer is ultimately a few cents of electricity And the cost to the society is few cents of electricity minus fraction of a cent the site gets, paid in fuel being wasted on producing that electricity. Crypto mining is a disaster. If I were an evil mastermind who wanted to deepen the energy and climate problems of the world, cryptocurrencies is what I would push for.

Because you think fiat currencies have no associated energy consumption?

They do. But in management of fiat currencies, it's understood that energy expenditure is an upkeep that is to be reduced. In cryptocurrencies, on the other hand, energy use is a "feature" that's intended to grow over time.

Or put differently, cryptocurrencies are trying to replace a system that's O(log n) with respect to energy with a system that's O(n^2), for questionable and mostly imaginary benefit of trustless payments.

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#168

Post by wastedhours »

brailsafe wrote: post #68

I bet some clever person on the marketing team just went ahead and inserted the tag. My first experience on a large corporate dev team was eye-opening. While the core product code was version controlled and reviewed, the marketing team had the power to insert any kind of scripts onto the page without clearance. In theory, anything new on the page would require many ridiculous meetings. In practice, they could and did…

As a marketer and coder, I appreciate those loopholes to make sh*t work (I used to do it all of the time, and was pretty much the basis I was hired on at my previous job) :) although I would concede giving anyone the option if they don't have tech experience is a nightmare waiting to happen.

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#169

Post by [deleted] »

joosters wrote: post #161
pr0gramm wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be true for Ethereum or Bitcoin, but not for Monero. The Coinhive Monero miner is about 65% as fast as a native miner would be, at least in Browsers that support WASM. Disclaimer: I wrote the Coinhive Monero miner.

How does it feel to see your code getting used worldwide... almost entirely by deceitful scum?

[deleted]

Re: CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

#170

Post by reinhardt1053 »

Lev1a wrote: post #110
hrasyid wrote: post #90

if running ads is acceptable, why is this bad?

Does running ads multiply your electricity costs (run your battery dry) and/or burn up your CPU? No. Does cryptocurrency mining do that? Yes. Do you see the difference now?

Running ads also dry your battery.
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