In an effort to monetize colossal visitor numbers, websites have begun to utilize their visitors' PCs for the lucrative business of cryptocurrency mining, sparking outrage and raising the question of whether users will stand for it.

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Pirate Bay, the world’s most popular torrent site, visited by an estimated 50 million people each month, claimed it was running a “test” earlier this month when it was caught paralyzing users’ computers by using their processing power to mine Monero, a fast-growing cryptocurrency without their users' consent.

“As you may have noticed we are testing a Monero javascript miner. This is only a test. We really want to get rid of all the ads. But we also need enough money to keep the site running,” read the Pirate Bay statement.

“Let us know what you think in the comments. Do you want ads or do you want to give away a few of your CPU cycles every time you visit the site? Of course the mining can be blocked by a normal ad-blocker.”

A new revenue model? The Pirate Bay tests mining Monero with JavaScript as a replacement for ads. https://t.co/1L52uDoD14 — Drew Breunig (@dbreunig) September 17, 2017

Following online criticism, the site, which continues to be the target of regulatory bodies around the world for enabling the sharing of copyrighted material, immediately suspended its test. It has not attempted to reintroduce it since.

In the wake of this case, it was surprising that Showtime, the cable network site owned by media giant CBS, was caught engaging in an identical practice this week. And as with Pirate Bay, also without subscribers’ consent.

Coinhive miner found on official Showtime Anytime website in latest case of #cryptojackinghttps://t.co/gDb9DklySrpic.twitter.com/8ifZXUKjXU — Bad Packets Report (@bad_packets) September 24, 2017

It is, however, unclear if the mining code was maliciously injected into the company's website by a third party. Once outed, the code was quickly removed with Showtime, so far, not issuing an apology or responding to media queries.

Statement from @newrelic to @TheRegister regarding @Showtime Coinhive incident "We had nothing to do with the mystery code." pic.twitter.com/6YQwWjstm0 — Bad Packets Report (@bad_packets) September 26, 2017

Mining – conducting complex mathematical operations that log and verify the operation of virtual currencies – brings in profits in the form of accounting service payments, and gives the miner a randomized chance to 'mint' a new coin, which can result in a windfall profit.

For the users being piggybacked on, there are only drawbacks. As their processors are occupied in the mining process, their computers work slowly, their components wear out and their electricity bills rise.

Nonetheless, at least some of Pirate Bay’s users, and others responding to articles on the issue, said they would accept having their computers used for mining instead of paying subscription fees and being subjected to online ads, but not without their explicit consent, however.

Meanwhile, those who are wary of suspicious websites abusing their PCs can install ad-blockers and more specialized apps to prevent the mining codes from being activated.