{"id":41822,"date":"2017-12-19T12:56:13","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T20:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=41822"},"modified":"2017-12-19T12:56:13","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T20:56:13","slug":"computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/","title":{"rendered":"Is your computer secretly mining bitcoin alternatives? A guide to \u2018cryptojacking\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nNothing comes for free, especially online. Websites and apps that don\u2019t charge you for their services are often collecting your data or bombarding you with advertising. Now some sites have found a new way to make money from you: using your computer to generate\u00a0virtual currencies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Several\u00a0video streaming sites<\/a>\u00a0and the popular file sharing network\u00a0The Pirate Bay<\/a>\u00a0have allegedly been \u201ccryptojacking\u201d their users\u2019 computers in this way, as has the free wifi provider in a\u00a0Starbucks cafe in Argentina<\/a>. Users may object to this, especially if it slows down their computers. But given how hard it is for most companies to make money from online advertising, it might be something we have to get used to \u2013 unless we want to start paying more for things.<\/p>\n

Units of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin aren\u2019t created by a central bank like regular money but are\u00a0generated or \u201cmined\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by computers solving complex equations. Cryptojacking involves using someone\u2019s computer without their knowledge, perhaps for just seconds at a time, to mine a cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

In the case of bitcoin, mining requires specialised hardware and consumes masses of energy. For example, each bitcoin transaction takes enough energy to boil around 36,000 kettles filled with water. In a year, the whole bitcoin mining network consumes\u00a0more energy than Ireland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But bitcoin is not the only show in town and there are many competing cryptocurrences. One of the most successful is Monero, which builds a degree of privacy into transactions (something bitcoin doesn\u2019t do). Currently it requires no specialised hardware for mining, so anyone with computing power to spare can mine it.<\/p>\n

Mining usually takes the form of a competition. Whichever computer solves the equation the fastest is rewarded with the money. With Moreno and other similar cryptocurrencies, a pool of computers can work together and share the reward if they win the competition. This allows individual computers to work on a just small part of the mining task. The larger the pool, the more chance there is of winning the reward.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Mining pool.<\/p><\/div>
\nWhen a computer is cryptojacked, it is added to a pool for to work on the task. This is often done using a commercially available piece of software,\u00a0such as Coinhive<\/a>, which can written into what looks like an ad using the common website language JavaScript. As the ad runs in the background, the computer is added to a pool.<\/p>\n

This means the website or internet provider doing the cryptojacking can mine cryptocurrency with little cost to themselves.\u00a0One estimate<\/a>\u00a0is that 220 of the top 1,000 websites in the world are conducting cryptojacking, making a total of US$43,000 over a three week period. This might not be very much but file-sharing sites in particular have been searching for new businesses models in order to support their operations and cryptojacking could grow into a new income source.<\/p>\n

The problem for the computer\u2019s owner is that this takes up processor power, making other operations take much longer. Pirate Bay users have complained that their processors have been using\u00a0up to 85%<\/a>\u00a0of their capacity compared with less than 10% for normal operations. This can be accompanied by a large battery drain. The Pirate Bay has since said this high processor usage was a bug and the system should normally use between\u00a020% and 30% of processing power<\/a>.<\/p>\n

How do you avoid being cryptojacked?<\/h2>\n

Coinhive strongly advises the websites that deploy it that they should inform users they are being cryptojacked. But it\u2019s common for the code to run without users realising and without a way to opt out of it. If you want to prevent your computer from being cryptojacked you need a software tool which checks the code as it runs such as\u00a0an ad-blocker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But you might feel that allowing a site to use a little bit of your computer\u2019s processing power is a better alternative to being bombarded with advertising. Whatever you do, you\u2019ll likely end up paying for \u201cfree\u201d services somehow.<\/p>\n

Author Bio:<\/strong> Bill Buchanan is Head, The Cyber Academy at Edinburgh Napier University<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nothing comes for free, especially online. Websites and apps that don\u2019t charge you for their services are often collecting your data or bombarding you with advertising. Now some sites have found a new way to make money from you: using your computer to generate\u00a0virtual currencies. Several\u00a0video streaming sites\u00a0and the popular file sharing network\u00a0The Pirate Bay\u00a0have […]\n… learn more→<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":41823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,59],"tags":[165319],"coauthors":[11733],"class_list":["post-41822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-politics","category-science-tech","tag-cryptojacking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs your computer secretly mining bitcoin alternatives? A guide to \u2018cryptojacking\u2019 - World leading higher education information and services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is your computer secretly mining bitcoin alternatives? A guide to \u2018cryptojacking\u2019 - World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Nothing comes for free, especially online. Websites and apps that don\u2019t charge you for their services are often collecting your data or bombarding you with advertising. Now some sites have found a new way to make money from you: using your computer to generate\u00a0virtual currencies. Several\u00a0video streaming sites\u00a0and the popular file sharing network\u00a0The Pirate Bay\u00a0have […]\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"World leading higher education information and services\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-19T20:56:13+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Bitcoin-Millionaires.png\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"355\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kevin\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"headline\":\"Is your computer secretly mining bitcoin alternatives? A guide to \u2018cryptojacking\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-19T20:56:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":694,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/Bitcoin-Millionaires.png\",\"keywords\":[\"cryptojacking\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business and Politics\",\"Science and Technology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/\",\"name\":\"Is your computer secretly mining bitcoin alternatives? A guide to \u2018cryptojacking\u2019 - World leading higher education information and services\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/Bitcoin-Millionaires.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-19T20:56:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/Bitcoin-Millionaires.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/Bitcoin-Millionaires.png\",\"width\":680,\"height\":355},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Is your computer secretly mining bitcoin alternatives? A guide to \u2018cryptojacking\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/\",\"name\":\"World leading higher education information and services\",\"description\":\"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee\",\"name\":\"Kevin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kevin\"},\"description\":\"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.edu\\\/author\\\/kevin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Is your computer secretly mining bitcoin alternatives? A guide to \u2018cryptojacking\u2019 - World leading higher education information and services","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Is your computer secretly mining bitcoin alternatives? A guide to \u2018cryptojacking\u2019 - World leading higher education information and services","og_description":"Nothing comes for free, especially online. Websites and apps that don\u2019t charge you for their services are often collecting your data or bombarding you with advertising. Now some sites have found a new way to make money from you: using your computer to generate\u00a0virtual currencies. Several\u00a0video streaming sites\u00a0and the popular file sharing network\u00a0The Pirate Bay\u00a0have […]","og_url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/","og_site_name":"World leading higher education information and services","article_published_time":"2017-12-19T20:56:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":355,"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Bitcoin-Millionaires.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Kevin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kevin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/"},"author":{"name":"Kevin","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"headline":"Is your computer secretly mining bitcoin alternatives? A guide to \u2018cryptojacking\u2019","datePublished":"2017-12-19T20:56:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/"},"wordCount":694,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Bitcoin-Millionaires.png","keywords":["cryptojacking"],"articleSection":["Business and Politics","Science and Technology"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/","name":"Is your computer secretly mining bitcoin alternatives? A guide to \u2018cryptojacking\u2019 - World leading higher education information and services","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Bitcoin-Millionaires.png","datePublished":"2017-12-19T20:56:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Bitcoin-Millionaires.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Bitcoin-Millionaires.png","width":680,"height":355},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/computer-secretly-mining-bitcoin-alternatives-guide-cryptojacking\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/world.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Is your computer secretly mining bitcoin alternatives? A guide to \u2018cryptojacking\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#website","url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/","name":"World leading higher education information and services","description":"Global Higher Education Jobs, University jobs, Lecturer & tenure jobs.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/world.edu\/#\/schema\/person\/42c1c1d5ff7ffbdf0bd50ed94c6ae6ee","name":"Kevin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g8ba4c352a279c450aa9435d770c1ebf4","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1e8d491a5f9b9bf3db67c9e46abbba7bb06b26b458bd5025c55e0a4b9b60ea8a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kevin"},"description":"Kevin is founder of the world.edu project. The past 28 years have been involved in publishing to the education sector in print and the internet. Kevin has a degree in Education and has a many years experience in developing companies and projects.","sameAs":["https:\/\/world.edu"],"url":"https:\/\/world.edu\/author\/kevin\/"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41822"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/world.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=41822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}