NoCoin - Tiny browser extension aiming to block coin miners

@rrhoover PC mag paints browser coin mining as "malicious", but it isn't, necessarily. The example in the gif, coin-hive, is actually a really cool alternative to having ads support your site/game. In that example https://coin-hive.com/ gives you a short link redirects to your content after it mines for several seconds, instead of showing your users an ad. I find it to be a great alternative to seeing all the ads and popups you see for instance on that PC mag link. It seems like it could be a great way to support a game or blog without having to watch an ad.

@inorganik I can't understand how utilizing an extremely inefficient mining process could be considered anything but malicious, especially when the intention is to carry it out without the user knowing it is occurring.

@bwinterrose It's not malicious, because it's not *doing* anything malicious. It's simply performing some javascript. Every time you visit a site, it performs javascript. I like this alternative to ads, because personally I hate ads, but this way it supports the creator.

@bwinterrose @inorganik Curious, how does this actually work JavaScript wise? Does it use web assembly? Because as a Front End Dev I've never heard of mining bitcoin client side. Or is it more of a delegated task from the server that just performs some calculations client side?

@bwinterrose @inorganik @whatsbeefg It's not mining bitcoin, it's mining monero, which makes sure CPU mining is sustainable (that's why mining in javascript is possible, even if it's still not as good as a native miner). I like the idea, actually, any attempt to replace ads is a big win. The thing is, it's just too raw, for now. Clearly, using as much as possible CPU resources from visitor is a big no no, especially for people on battery. For this not to be considered malicious, it will need some kind of throttling ensuring it uses an acceptable amount of resources for user. It's probably just the start of it, errors are made.