Thinking about this, how long till ad blockers will also block these crypto mining scripts... it's not that different.
There's been blacklists for them since The Pirate Bay started their trial with it, perhaps longer.
Here's two:
Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs
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Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs
#22If this is done without explicit permission from the user, I can see it being some sort of hacking offence. So yes, I run adblockers. I will also run coinblockers. You're not going to be mining on my laptop processor and battery. Not yours. If you don't want me reading your stuff for free (which is perfectly reasonable!) then block me, instruct your server not to send content on those terms. I'm happy with that. But…
Out of curiosity... Rather than blocking ads, why not block sites that have ads? This way you comply with their implicit wish not to have you read their content without some sort of monetary return.
Because people will likely stop using their ad blocker if they can't use the web as they want to.
Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs
#23If this is done without explicit permission from the user, I can see it being some sort of hacking offence. So yes, I run adblockers. I will also run coinblockers. You're not going to be mining on my laptop processor and battery. Not yours. If you don't want me reading your stuff for free (which is perfectly reasonable!) then block me, instruct your server not to send content on those terms. I'm happy with that. But…
Out of curiosity... Rather than blocking ads, why not block sites that have ads? This way you comply with their implicit wish not to have you read their content without some sort of monetary return.
Honestly, it's a bit of a gray ethical area for me.
On one hand, what you say makes perfect sense.
On the other hand, I like having my cake and eating it, too. It's like having a buffet dinner where the host tells you: "sure, you can eat this juicy steak, but you also have to eat the surrounding shards of glass that I've put there to feed my thirst for human dignity".
If I particularly like the host I might do it, otherwise I'll just take the steak and leave.
Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs
#24So they did seize the means of production after all. The means of Monero production.
Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs
#25[deleted]
Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs
#26Thinking about this, how long till ad blockers will also block these crypto mining scripts... it's not that different.
I imagine the mining code can be transformed so that it will be hard to detect.
Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs
#27Bitcoin was inspired by Hashcash in 1992: a Proof-of-Work that protects services from DoS. Now we have come full circle.
Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs
#28Luckily, my adblocker (uBlock Origin) blocks mining scripts as well, so the joke's on them.
Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs
#29Re: Salon magazine mines crypto-cash with readers' PCs
#30Isn't that a good thing?
Imagine you have a little widget in your browser that displays something like '50%' which means you constantly use 50% of one core to mine a cryptocurrency for the page you are currently looking at.
And in return you get an ad free web. I think that would be way better then the web as we know it.