Piratebay mines with your CPU

[Wilson Grant Fisk]

I tipped off TorrentFreak, they said they were going to look into it.
https://torrentfreak.com/contact/

Not sure if it is technically illegal, but defo blackhat lol
On the one hand I say fair enough, a sneaky way to earn but on the other hand using your user's resources to mine will probably backfire, especially when their CPU resources get eaten up and the system slows to a crawl.

 

[batiatus]

JS miner will be easily detected and unblocked in future. For me, Miner captcha is a game changer because people will be clicking on that willingly (in exchange of a service or a product you offer) and this will be the smoothest way of contribute a website you like/use.

 

[luke6966]

Why is everyone getting so anal about it?

The offer you free content, they get a bit of monero from you back at no cost or loss to you.

Or did I miss something?

 

[knopi33]

Fucking brilliant....they have millions of users daily.

If they warn and explain to the user, it may come legal I don't know. Maybe this is the future post-adblock enviroment

 

[HoNeYBiRD]

Why is everyone getting so anal about it?

The offer you free content, they get a bit of monero from you back at no cost or loss to you.

Or did I miss something?

That's one way to look at it, but:
(1) i guess TPB doesn't advertise this anywhere, their users are none the wiser
(2) if they use almost all of your CPU, that effects the experience of using your machine badly

 

[tb303]

I tipped off TorrentFreak, they said they were going to look into it.
https://torrentfreak.com/contact/

Not sure if it is technically illegal, but defo blackhat lol
On the one hand I say fair enough, a sneaky way to earn but on the other hand using your user's resources to mine will probably backfire, especially when their CPU resources get eaten up and the system slows to a crawl.

If a user is regularly visiting torrent sites and allowing random javascript to be executed then its only a matter of time before their pc slows to a crawl through malware anyway. Plus look at this thread most people wouldnt even notice.

What I find suprising about this is that thepiratebay are hot linking to the js file on coin-hive.com. Their server must be getting a hammering.

 

[tb303]

Hey @Asif WILSON Khan, that was quick lol
https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-website-runs-a-cryptocurrency-miner-170916/

 

[Buzzika]

Yea, but this is illegal. And if someone dares to do illegal things, there are more profitable ways than JS miner.

You do realize mining is the least of TPB's legal worries? Lol

 

[bartosimpsonio]

Yea, but this is illegal. And if someone dares to do illegal things, there are more profitable ways than JS miner.

How is it illegal?

 

[Fragmaster]

You do realize mining is the least of TPB's legal worries? Lol

I wasn't talking about TPB, but individuals that want to build malware sites.

 

[Fragmaster]

How is it illegal?

Isn't it? Running malware on visitors computer without consent? It takes control of computer resources without consent. If that's not illegal, hacking is not crime.

 

[bartosimpsonio]

Isn't it? Running malware on visitors computer without consent?

When you visit a site with javascript turned on you consent to running their javascript.

There are countless javascript applications running on any given site at any given time. Why would mining be illegal?

I think you found something truly brilliant here to be honest.

By the way, torrentfreak copied this thread and gave no credit?

 

[THUNDERELVI]

This is soo fucking genius and it gave me lots of ideas lol... Plus, if users knew, they would happily exchange their computer resources for free content, especially people that don't fully utilize their resources, which is everyone that isn't tech savvy.

 

[bartosimpsonio]

This is soo fucking genius and it gave me lots of ideas lol... Plus, if users knew, they would happily exchange their computer resources for free content, especially people that don't fully utilize their resources, which is everyone that isn't tech savvy.

This is probably the future of micropayments.

Site owners get paid in cryptos instead of ads.

This is really genius right here.

 

[Fragmaster]

Any type of decentralisation is great for end users, and small webmasters. I also consider hardware/energy payment as a handy model. Great times to live in. I'm also all about visitors knowing about it, which makes it fair.

 

[THUNDERELVI]

This is probably the future of micropayments.

Site owners get paid in cryptos instead of ads.

This is really genius right here.

Yes and imagine if a software like Bittorrent for example would use this - so much more efficient than JS mining, 24/7 access (most non-tech savvy users leave their torrent software running in the background), etc... And this isn't limited to just torrents. Any software with a considerable user base would bank hard on this. Anyone up for a JV?

 

[tb303]

This is probably the future of micropayments.

Site owners get paid in cryptos instead of ads.

This is really genius right here.

Its not a new idea though - its had a rocky start
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidbit
https://venturebeat.com/2014/02/12/...ckers-with-subpoena-and-theyre-fighting-back/

I believe that case was settled in the end though but took some time and money - cant find a link right now though.

edit: here, https://www.coindesk.com/new-jersey-settlement-controversial-bitcoin-project/

 

[redjebo]

Why is everyone getting so anal about it?

The offer you free content, they get a bit of monero from you back at no cost or loss to you.

Or did I miss something?

"They" don't offer a free content. They offer server space where people upload/download free content. Secretly sucking resources off of contributors/seeders etc is definitely a turn off.

 

[Fragmaster]

Yes and imagine if a software like Bittorrent for example would use this - so much more efficient than JS mining, 24/7 access (most non-tech savvy users leave their torrent software running in the background), etc... And this isn't limited to just torrents. Any software with a considerable user base would bank hard on this. Anyone up for a JV?

Turning any software into a miner isn't good longterm model. People would uninstall. Mining slows normal computers to halt, uses a lot of power, increase chance of PSU failure, damage components. If you don't want to push computer 100%, it would earn virtually nothing. Not a new concept, but interesting one.

 

[tb303]

Turning any software into a miner isn't good longterm model. People would uninstall. Mining slows normal computers to halt, uses a lot of power, increase chance of PSU failure, damage components. If you don't want to push computer 100%, it would earn virtually nothing. Not a new concept, but interesting one.

This. uTorrent already tried it
https://torrentfreak.com/new-utorrent-release-breaks-ties-with-bitcoin-miner-150413/