Why Websites Are Hijacking CPU Electricity To Mine Cryptocurrencies

Despite warnings against some of the largest names in the financial world it might be a bubble, bitcoin enthusiasts show no signs of slowing down yet. For this writing, the purchase price of a single coin is nearly $14,000 — over 20 times what it was at this period this past year.

All of this has taken place while many investors do not fully understand how digital currencies operate or retain value, and in spite of the fact that cryptocurrency adoption at most real-world stores has yet to occur.

Websites Hijack User Electricity

Back in September, news broke that certain sites, such as those of the television network Showtime, had been covertly harnessing the computer processing power of site visitors to mine cryptocurrency.

Now, the trend has reemerged in the news, as a Twitter user seen at a Starbucks that was doing something similar, in this instance so as to mine for Monero without the knowledge of its clients. Starbucks' reward site for Argentina was running Coinhive's code to farm for Monero coins, utilizing the computers of clients logged on to the coffee chain's WiFi with no knowledge. As of now, Starbucks has yet to respond to queries about the mining operation.

So Why Mine Cryptocurrencies?

Why might companies do this? It could be that site owners are searching for alternative, increasingly rewarding, ways of earning income from their visitors. It was that ads were the means to do this. But with greater sensitivity among consumers and new advertising blockers emerging all of the time, sometimes it may be more profitable to give up on traditional online advertising in favor of cryptocurrency mining attempts rather.

Websites favoring this underhanded approach seem to solutions like Coinhive, which utilizes a JavaScript library for electronic monies together with the computing resources of users visiting a website. Coinhive itself is promoted to site owners as a way to “conduct your site without ads.”

Consumers have long believed online advertising to be “unwanted, dangerous and prone to infectious malvertising,” according to Engadget. The illicit farming of electronic tokens has prompted a similar response, albeit one that is less widely disseminated at this point.

What's next for this secretive digital money mining project? Some consumers and security companies are fighting back, producing products to discover and block or eliminate those protocols. However, because digital monies continue growing in prominence and value, it's a safe bet that this type of malicious CPU-harnessing will proliferate as well.