The US show now offers visitors the bizarre option of disabling their blockers advertisements or allow Salon to access visitors. "Unused computing power" a veiled way of apparently asking users to allow Salon to extract cryptocurrency via the user's computer.

Salon frames its application to users around to support the company. pop-up on the site "[w] e depend on commercials to keep our content free for you" . The site also informs visitors that if users choose to let Salon access their processing power "unused" this power can be used for a variety of humanitarian and scientific projects, from Blockchain technology to the 39, spatial signal analysis. see if the aliens are trying to make contact.

If you open Salon.com with an advertising blocker running, the following message will appear:

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By clicking on the " Learn More " about the Beta Suppress Ads option, Salon begins to answer visitors' questions, starting with a detailed explanation of the falling incomes in the journalism industry.

If a user decides to opt for the option Beta Suppress Ads, the unused treatment of the user the power will then be used by Salon to perform calculations, a process described by the publication as similar to " borrow your calculator for a few minutes to find the answer to math problems, pu is the render when you leave the site. " This hyperlink sentence to a Salon article about the technology behind Bitcoin extraction, while nowhere else in the FAQ are the words" Bitcoin "or "Mining" mentioned

Salon mentions that their beta program uses your computer to help "support the evolution and growth of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies" again without mentioning mining, which is what the company seems to be doing. The Salon FAQ on Suppress Ads beta assures visitors that it is perfectly normal for their fan to turn on while Salon uses the processing power of their computer.

Journalist Ian Miles Cheong writes on Twitter today that Salon is using Coinhive. made to exploit Monero altcoin and marketed to companies as "alternative" source of revenue for commercials.

Salon installs CoinHive on your PC without explaining to you explicitly that it uses your CPU power to exploit for bitcoin. https://t.co/B4oEoFVenK – Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 13, 2018

While the Salon FAQ section does not mention Coinhive either, the Financial Times wrote today. As a different pop salon – the same process says down, "powered by Coinhive". Coinhive has already been used as an alternative to advertising by Showtime and The Pirate Bay, albeit surreptitiously, without warning as the Salon did.

After Showtime revealed to have secretly directed the scenario of Coinhive on visitors' computers on which a blocker of commercials was installed, Coinhive wrote on their website that they were " saddened " to learn that their script was being used undisclosed, and that this permission should be requested before running Coinhive for mining.