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Starbucks in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires uses CoinHive

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Re: Starbucks in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires uses CoinHive

#51

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

brndnmtthws wrote: post #20
zenon wrote: post #5

The Coinhive script mines Monero: https://coinhive.com/ . It's been a while since JavaScript Bitcoin mining was feasible :)

The unwashed masses can't understand the difference between different coins, so you might as well call everything Bitcoin.

Most of these crypto currency exchange are derived from bitcoin's codebase (or at least from bitcoin's white paper) so from that perspective I don't consider calling these other crypto's as "bitcoin" to be incorrect, just not specific. I could imagine that maybe could use the distinction of capital Bitcoin to refer to the specific blockchain while lowercase bitcoin to refer to any Bitcoin forks.

Re: Starbucks in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires uses CoinHive

#52

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

apandhi wrote: post #35

I had a run-in with CoinHive this weekend so I did a bit of research. Most modern computers can do about 30/h a second. Coinhive currently pays out 0.00009030 XMR ($0.02 USD) per 1M hashes. For a 10 second pause, they'd mine 300 hashes (about $0.000006 USD). To make $1 USD, they'd need to have ~166,666.66 people connect to their in store WIFI.

30 hashes a second seems extremely low and I'm wondering where they got that number. Are they using unoptimized JavaScript I nstead of ASM.js?

Re: Starbucks in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires uses CoinHive

#53

Post by em3rgent0rdr »

Jemmeh wrote: post #43
astura wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeez, you're completely missing the point. The GP was asking for a comparison the odds/cost of mining a coin with the odds/cost of winning the lottery. Not about "investing," and not about "making a profit." Basically, which form of gambling is better from a cost/rewards perspective.

My understanding is you are always outspending on energy costs because of the energy inefficiency of personal computers for mining vs. a dedicated machine. So the chance of return would be more or less 0%. More like, "If I pay $5 for a lottery ticket where the max I can win is $4, what are my chances of profiting?" But again, not an expert. Just the articles I've read and people I know who mine bitcoin say you can't…

> "If I pay $5 for a lottery ticket where the max I can win is $4, what are my chances of profiting?"

If you use a mining pool then you won't make a profit on a laptop. However if you were solo mining on your laptop, then there is a very small chance that you could win seriously big moola.

Re: Starbucks in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires uses CoinHive

#55

Post by soared »

55555 wrote: post #27
soared wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think anyone mines for bitcoins by themselves anymore - they join a pool so you get a small guaranteed payout.

You can still mine yourself and that might appeal to someone who likes buying lottery tickets. Mining yourself at least has the possibility of positive ROI as opposed to a guarantee of losing money.

I didn't say you can't do it - I said people don't really do it anymore. You can easily get a positive roi if you do it correctly, why do you think there are literal crypto factories built to mine coins?

Re: Starbucks in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires uses CoinHive

#56

Post by astura »

Jemmeh wrote: post #43
astura wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeez, you're completely missing the point. The GP was asking for a comparison the odds/cost of mining a coin with the odds/cost of winning the lottery. Not about "investing," and not about "making a profit." Basically, which form of gambling is better from a cost/rewards perspective.

My understanding is you are always outspending on energy costs because of the energy inefficiency of personal computers for mining vs. a dedicated machine. So the chance of return would be more or less 0%. More like, "If I pay $5 for a lottery ticket where the max I can win is $4, what are my chances of profiting?" But again, not an expert. Just the articles I've read and people I know who mine bitcoin say you can't…

Very false. You appear to not understand how mining works.

The reason people join pools is to make money even if you never personally mine a coin. In a pool you just get paid for your effort. This is why joining a pool with consumer hardware will always lose.

In this case we aren't talking about pools!

There is two things that can happen when you solo mine - you either "lose it all" (all money spent on electricity down the drain) or "hit the jackpot," (1 full Bitcoin all for you!)

At that level with a small hash rate its gambling, you're throwing some amount of money at it at the very, very tiny chance of a big payout.

Say, for example, there's a 1/10000 chance any one person will mine a coin on consumer hardware per every $100 in electricity. So you're buying a $100 lottery ticket where the payout is $17,000.

Of course you "can't make money like that," the vast majority of people will lose money, just like the majority of lottery players will lose money.

Re: Starbucks in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires uses CoinHive

#57

Post by criddell »

astura wrote: post #56
Jemmeh wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is you are always outspending on energy costs because of the energy inefficiency of personal computers for mining vs. a dedicated machine. So the chance of return would be more or less 0%. More like, "If I pay $5 for a lottery ticket where the max I can win is $4, what are my chances of profiting?" But again, not an expert. Just the articles I've read and people I know who mine bitcoin say you can't…

Very false. You appear to not understand how mining works. The reason people join pools is to make money even if you never personally mine a coin. In a pool you just get paid for your effort. This is why joining a pool with consumer hardware will always lose. In this case we aren't talking about pools! There is two things that can happen when you solo mine - you either "lose it all" (all money spent on electricity do…

With the lottery, you are at least partially funding public education (35% of the revenue if I remember correctly). Are there any social benefits to Bitcoin mining?

Re: Starbucks in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires uses CoinHive

#58

Post by apandhi »

em3rgent0rdr wrote: post #52
apandhi wrote: post #35

I had a run-in with CoinHive this weekend so I did a bit of research. Most modern computers can do about 30/h a second. Coinhive currently pays out 0.00009030 XMR ($0.02 USD) per 1M hashes. For a 10 second pause, they'd mine 300 hashes (about $0.000006 USD). To make $1 USD, they'd need to have ~166,666.66 people connect to their in store WIFI.

30 hashes a second seems extremely low and I'm wondering where they got that number. Are they using unoptimized JavaScript I nstead of ASM.js?

30 hashes a second is what you'd likely see on mid-range laptops. You can test your machine on CoinHive (https://coinhive.com/)

My fully maxed out 2017 rMBP can only do 50-60h/s at full speed with all threads. Most people don't have a machine nearly as powerful as mine.

Re: Starbucks in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires uses CoinHive

#59

Post by [deleted] »

Jemmeh wrote: post #43
astura wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeez, you're completely missing the point. The GP was asking for a comparison the odds/cost of mining a coin with the odds/cost of winning the lottery. Not about "investing," and not about "making a profit." Basically, which form of gambling is better from a cost/rewards perspective.

My understanding is you are always outspending on energy costs because of the energy inefficiency of personal computers for mining vs. a dedicated machine. So the chance of return would be more or less 0%. More like, "If I pay $5 for a lottery ticket where the max I can win is $4, what are my chances of profiting?" But again, not an expert. Just the articles I've read and people I know who mine bitcoin say you can't…

[deleted]

Re: Starbucks in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires uses CoinHive

#60

Post by Jemmeh »

astura wrote: post #56
Jemmeh wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My understanding is you are always outspending on energy costs because of the energy inefficiency of personal computers for mining vs. a dedicated machine. So the chance of return would be more or less 0%. More like, "If I pay $5 for a lottery ticket where the max I can win is $4, what are my chances of profiting?" But again, not an expert. Just the articles I've read and people I know who mine bitcoin say you can't…

Very false. You appear to not understand how mining works. The reason people join pools is to make money even if you never personally mine a coin. In a pool you just get paid for your effort. This is why joining a pool with consumer hardware will always lose. In this case we aren't talking about pools! There is two things that can happen when you solo mine - you either "lose it all" (all money spent on electricity do…

I was mistaken then. What I've read about it was somewhat incomplete from what people are saying here.

That said there is absolutely no need to be such a jerk about it.

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