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https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay ... er-170916/

A few hours ago a cryptocurrency miner appeared on The Pirate Bay website, using the computer resources of visitors to mine Monero coins. The operators of The Pirate Bay are testing it as a new way to generate revenue, but many users aren't happy.

While there’s nothing wrong with using Bitcoin as a donation tool, adding a Javascript cryptocurrency miner to a site is of a totally different order.

A few hours ago many Pirate Bay users began noticing that their CPU usage increased dramatically when they browsed certain Pirate Bay pages. Upon closer inspection, this spike appears to have been caused by a Bitcoin miner embedded on the site.

The code in question is tucked away in the site’s footer and uses a miner provided by Coinhive. This service offers site owners the option to convert the CPU power of users into Monero coins.

Further reading :
https://www.maketecheasier.com/beware-o ... +Easier%29

Windscribe, a VPN provider, is asking for CPU power.

Here's what it's said to be for in an email sent to me :

Did you know that you can now upgrade to a Pro account via a brand new method - by using your spare CPU capacity to do math!

Hold on, give us a chance to explain without boring you to death. When you use your computer, for the most part, the CPU is sitting there not doing much of anything, which is a huge waste. The fine folks at Intel and AMD worked really hard on these things, so why not put them to good use and earn free bandwidth and even Pro service?

Basically, the process involves you opening a special web-page on our website, which will use your CPU to solve complex math puzzles. Don't worry if you're bad at math, you don't have to do anything as your CPU is exceptionally good at that kind of stuff. Each solution gives credit to your account. Once you get enough credits you can redeem them for things like resetting your usage on demand, permanently increasing your free bandwidth allowance, or even earning a free Pro account!

By the way, you see that button above? Of course you do, you're not blind (unless you are, in which case - sorry). You can open that on as many computers as you'd like, and you will get rewards even faster. One thing you should know is that your computer will use a lot more electricity while doing this, so don't run this on a laptop that is not plugged in.

Cryptocurrency mining is an heavy user of processing power.

Bitcoins are instead generated using a free computer program, and are created at a predictable rate based on the amount of processing power dedicated to their generation. This process is known as Bitcoin mining, and in theory anyone can do it, but in practice it requires such a large amount of processing power that it is impractical for most individuals, although it is possible to join a Bitcoin mining pool (or similar organization) to help spread the costs (and rewards).

From : https://www.bestvpn.com/privacy-news/bu ... de-part-1/

Reading the email, you realize it is not mentionned anywhere that your processing power is for cryptocurrency mining : using your spare CPU capacity to do math.

The Pirate Bay website do it, now Windscribe. I see this as an emerging trend.

Something is fishy about this kind of offer.

Fishy indeed... good to know - keep us posted? Thanx man

labbe5 wrote:Something is fishy about this kind of offer.

I totally agree, labbe5, but I think fishy is a too nice description in this case!

Many universities are connected to a scientific network, allowing use of the cpus in idle PCs, at night or when they are not avaliable to students. The machines are usually running 24/7 anyway. But that is a strictly non-profit service used in connection with research.

tallboy

Yes there is a difference between the two.
One is pure research and worthwhile, the other is commercial exploitation (though the search for new primes DOES have some scientific value)