Salon is using adblocking readers’ CPU power to mine cryptocurrency

It seems popular online magazine Salon is the latest company to hop onto the cryptocurrency mining bandwagon. The publication has updated its website to require users to disable their ad-blockers for the right to read articles – or alternatively, lend their CPU power to mine cryptocurrency.

Visitors are now prompted to either turn off ad-blockers altogether or select the new ‘Suppress Ads’ option to “bl ock ads by allowing Salon to use your unused computing power.”

According to a clarification on its website, opting to lend your “unused processing power” will only happen “when you are browsing Salonom.” The other options are to switch ad-blockers off, or pay for their ad-free apps on iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon Fire.

The good thing is that the it is entirely up to the users to opt-in for the CPU-borrowing option. “ If you opt-in, your ad-blocker remains turned on, and your experience will remain consistent with the experience you are used to when you come to Salonom with your ad-blocker on.”

The publication goes on to explain that opting-in means Salon will use your computing power solely when you are on its website. “[Y] our computer will only be donating its spare processing power for the duration that you are browsing Salonom,” the page reads. “When you close Salonom in your browser, the process stops.”

The current setup remembers opt-in preferences for up to 24 hours; once this window has closed, users will be asked to opt-in again.

There is nothing inherently wrong with exploring alternative approaches to monetizing on your content, but Salon seems to suggest that lending your CPU power to them somehow advances the entire blockchain and cryptocurrency space.

“For our beta program, we’ll start by applying your processing power to help support the evolution and growth of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies,” the FAQ page reads.

“However, the possibilities for this sort of technology are limitless,” it continues. “Your spare computing power may go to solving the kinds of complex math problems that form the integrity of blockchains, but it can also be used for humanitarian and scientific projects such as helping research how proteins fold, to aid in biological discovery or helping pay for misdemeanor prisoners’ bail or see if we can better predict the impact of climate change.”

“Your spare computing power can even help analyze astronomical signals to figure out if extraterrestrials are trying to contact us. Some scholars have proposed using spare computing power to help secure voting and verify the integrity of democratic elections.”

It remains unclear whether Salon has any intentions to donate some of its mining profits to further blockchain research and applications, but nothing in its new terms suggests this is the case.

While the mentioned applications and developments are indeed authentic, Salon is merely using users’ CPU power to support its own operations – not pushing the mining industry forward. To imply that lending them your computing cycles supports the entire industry is borderline unethical, to say the least.

In all fairness, borrowing visitors’ CPU cycles to mine cryptocurrency for profits is not a novel business model. Indeed, The Pirate Bay was caught resorting to this same tactic last year – the problem was that it conveniently forgot to notify its users about it.

While the website temporarily disabled the mining implementation, it was busted pulling the same shenanigans again on another occasion. This time around though, the Pirate Bay had made it impossible to opt out of lending your CPU power to the website.

As TorrentFreak later pointed out , stealing computing cycles from users could hardly bring more profits to The Pirate Bay than ads – while arguably making the user experience significantly less convenient.

It remains to be seen whether Salon can work out how to borrow computing resources from users without impacting the reading experience, but in case you want to protect yourself from other websites jacking your CPU to mine crypto – there are measures you can take to prevent this from happening .

[H/T @TheNextWoods ]

India to spell out draft cryptocurrency regulations in December

Quartz reports that the Indian government is set to lay out a draft of its regulations for cryptocurrencies next month – clarifying its stance on how these digital assets can be used and traded in the country.

A panel set up by the finance ministry a year ago is expected to issue a draft report and bill on “virtual currencies, use of distributed ledger technology in (the) financial system and framework for digital currency in India,” noted the country’s ruling party in a counter-affidavit in a Supreme Court case filed by domestic cryptocurrency exchanges which have accused the government of stifling the industry.

The news comes after the country’s central banking institution, the Reserve Bank of India, instructed banks to stop doing business with cryptocurrency exchanges back in April. That saw local exchanges wind down their operations; Zebpay , arguably the largest Bitcoin exchange in India, ended up moving its operations to Malta and serving 20 countries across Europe.

Subhash Chandra Garg, who’s heading up the financial panel that will draft the policy on virtual currencies, had previously stated that regulations will be implemented by March 2019. With the panel’s meetings slated to take place over this December and January 2019, it remains to be seen if the body can stick to that deadline.

All eyes will be on Garg & Co. as their policies will decide the fate of cryptocurrency businesses across India in the near future.

Switzerland says its national blockchain will be more secure than Bitcoin – it won’t be

Switzerland‘s state-run postal and telecoms services are hellbent on building a national blockchain in a bid to recruit local businesses to convert to distributed ledger technology (DLT).

Swiss Post and Swisscom have shared details of a joint-venture to create a completely private Swiss blockchain for launching locally operated “decentralized” applications.

The proposed blockchain is to be a touch more centralized than usual. All data it handles is said to be kept within Switzerland’s digital borders.

What’s more curious is the press release includes a rather alarmist sales pitch. Apparently, having Swiss utilities act as blockchain gatekeepers means the infrastructure uses less electricity , making it more “green.”

Even weirder, apparently having a national blockchain hosted by a handful of approved servers magically means it’s more secure than Bitcoin.

“In contrast to ‘public blockchains’ (e.g. Bitcoin and Ethereum), this private blockchain infrastructure requires much less energy, since it can only be used by identified users who have a contractual relationship with the providers of an application,” Swisscom says. “This enables more efficient agreement procedures as well as significantly higher security and performance.”

It should be noted that security of permissioned blockchain systems like these relies heavily on trusting the parties maintaining the network and its underlying software. In this case, the burden lies with two of Switzerland’s state-run utilities.

So, claiming its blockchain is more secure than the Bitcoin network is a stretch, to say the least.

Hyperledger Fabric is powering the new infrastructure – the open-source, “ coinless ” blockchain project curated by the Linux Foundation .

Swisscom scheduled the market-launch for the first pilot applications deployed on its new blockchain for mid-2019.

Almost ominously, local media notes the first signup is a platform for creating “crypto shares” – special encrypte d digital tokens representing ownership of a stake in the issuing company.

This sounds awfully like a platform for running securites-themed initial coin offerings , but the idea is these tokens could allow smaller firms to list their shares on traditional stock exchanges .

Ultimately, Switzerland’s national blockchain looks geared towards public authorities and companie>s keen on adopting DLT, but only if it doesn’t get them in trouble with local financial watchdogs.

The biggest is FINMA, which recently began licensing Swiss cryptocurrency businesses intent on handling up to $100 million in customer funds.