Yesterday it hit the news that PirateBay has inserted code to their website which will make its visitors mine the cryptocurrency Monero for them while visiting the PirateBay internet site. Is that okay?
Cryptocurrencies are in the wind, and you may have heard about them in the media recently. Maybe because some high-ranking bank managers call them crap, or maybe because China has banned Initial Coin Offerings (ICO’s) and they are also forcing the nation’s exchanges to stop operating in China from the end of September or October 2017.
Yesterday it went public that Pirate Bay was hiding javascript code on their website which led its visitors to unknowingly mine Monero, creating income for Pirate Bay. It was said to be a simple 24 hour test period, but it is no secret that Pirate Bay might keep this a running practice in the future. All webmasters know that income is important, and such “hidden” mining might be an even more effective way of creating an income than the traditional commercials.
We have tested a similar javascript that can be run in the background of your browser that will generate income to the webmaster, and it is in fact very easy to implement to a website. You can have something like that up and running in less than 10 minutes, and you can see your income in Monero in 11 minutes from now. It isn’t worth the trouble for those with few visitors because it will take ages for you to generate income in that way. But, if you have a website were visitors spend several minutes and maybe hours every day (forums, sites with videos and pictures, or something like that), then it might be something in it for you. But again, it will slow down your website, and it will slow down the computer of those visiting. An important question to ask yourself is therefore whether or not this is good for your business and blog in the long run, or not.
How to block javascript on your website?
We have just implemented such a Monero miner on a website for testing purposes. The interesting thing is that the visitor doesn’t even notice or get information about it. In that way, we can take advantage of our visitors, and that doesn’t always feel good. We do not want to be taken advantage of, and for that reason, you probably wonder, how to block such and similar javascript on your website?
The easiest way to get rid of such scripts is by using an AdBlocker. There are several adblockers available with your browser, so just install one, and you will most likely be able to block both miner scripts and also Google ads and other annoying programs running on the websites you visit.
