Would you choose to hand over your processing power to mine cryptocurrency instead of having to look at ads?

Ads on websites. It's a necessary evil. Or is it?

Not really. Many website visitors block ads so they can consume web services without the visual and auditory clutter foisted upon them by advertisers.

There's a problem with this aggressive solution to ads, though. The websites lose significant revenues. So, naturally, alternative income solutions crop up.

Enter Coinhive. This Javascript-based program injects malware on the unwitting visitor's computer that then secretly uses their processing power to make the website a little money, often in the form of Monero, an untraceable cryptocurrency.

Some websites have recently turned to the services provided by platforms such as Coinhive. By doing so, the website could remain ad-free and gain considerable income mining cryptocurrency with website visitors' computers.

The main problem for the visitor, besides the intrusive nature of malware, is the over-taxing of their computer for the sake of perusing a website. But it does bring to question this dilemma: which would you rather have? Ad-free websites where you "surrender" your PC's power to the website as a miner, or websites chock full of ads, cluttering up your web visiting experience?

When Pirate Bay decided to use Coinhive in lieu of advertising a few months back, visitors were not pleased. Users were so upset, Pirate Bay eventually chose to abandon this approach. Recently, however, the website salon.com offered visitors the choice - view ads, or let us use your processing power for "calculations" ie. mining Monero. It is framed in a very positive light on the website, as seen in this quote,

The demand for computing power across many different industries and applications is potentially very high. We intend to use a small percentage of your spare processing power to contribute to the advancement of technological discovery, evolution and innovation. For our beta program, we’ll start by applying your processing power to help support the evolution and growth of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. (coindesk)

Sounds pretty nice, really. What's a little spare processing power going to do to me anyway?

Visitors need to realise, that "spare processing power" could be making them money, instead of Salon, or whichever website wants to do them the favour of letting them look at their website. Not only that, the spare processing power will cost the user electricity and wear and tear on their computer.

Setting up a miner on a computer has become a pretty painless and simple process. A few clicks around YouTube can get any novice started mining Monero or other popular coins in minutes (OK, maybe hours if you include syncing the blockchain). Not only that - there are alternative solutions to this problem. Solutions like Oyster Pearl or BAT (Basic Attention Token) with the Brave browser, for example, offer more elegant solutions to this conundrum without the penalty of handing over processing power to self-serving websites.

Given the choice, which would you prefer? Put up with ads or hand over your PC's power? Or... neither?

*This is not professional trading advice - it's just my opinion!

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sources:

https://www.engadget.com/2017/12/15/as-online-ads-fail-sites-mine-cryptocurrency/

https://www.coindesk.com/salon-offers-users-choice-between-ads-and-mining-monero/

https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/news-photo/miners-at-denisovsky-mine-operated-by-cc-kolmar-llc-a-coal-news-photo/670572518#miners-at-denisovsky-mine-operated-by-cc-kolmar-llc-a-coal-mining-and-picture-id670572518