3 ms·

Embeddable Bitcoin Miner for Websites

5 points by dnadolny 15y ago

orangecat 15y ago
Wow. I'd like a list of sites that use this, so that I know to never do business with them.
- dnadolny 15y ago
  Can I ask why? The way I see it, websites with advertisements use your mind (by grabbing your attention). This only uses your computer. Which would you rather have a website try to take over?
  - rudiger 15y ago
    You really think you'll get effective monetization out of a Bitcoin miner that's written in JavaScript and only run on people's short one-minute visits to a website? Bitcoin mining is orders of magnitude more efficient on a GPU than on a CPU, and that's compared to the fastest C++ clients, not something running in a JavaScript interpreter. Maybe a popular installable game that's played for hours at a time and uses people's excess GPU to mine Bitcoin could be profitable. But this is just a waste of everyone's time.
    - dnadolny 15y ago
      This one isn't javascript, it's based on my browser bitcoin miner[1] which is written in Java. It's about 2000 times faster than the javascript bitcoin miner that I know of. It's around 30-40% slower than one of the optimized C CPU miners, and of course it's a a lot slower than a GPU miner, but it mines at a reasonable rate (and it starts up quickly) As for effective monetization, this is something you can run in addition to regular ads if you wanted, since it doesn't take up any screen space. [1] - http://www.bitcoinplus.com/generate http://www.bitcoinplus.com/generate
      - orangecat 15y ago
        Oh good. So not only does it spike my CPU and kill my battery, I also get the resource overhead of the JVM. This is a reverse DDOS. Sorry if I'm being too hostile, but I like the idea of bitcoin, and don't want to see it become associated with hijacking people's computers.
        dnadolny 15y ago
        No need to apologize for how you feel - some people love the idea (of supporting a website with their computer power), some people hate it. As for the resource overhead of the JVM, it's infeasible to have a bitcoin miner that uses javascript - that was how I did it initially, as a proof of concept, but it was so slow I abandoned it.
adrianwaj 15y ago
I'd show some stats on the website, like how much mined in previous 24hrs, how much the individual pc is contributing, other sites that run the widget. Make the user feel appreciated. Give them the option to turn it off, or throttle down. Check out the Wibiya toolbar and how that can be switched off. Build a network. Also, consider making the mining as part of a captcha mechanism.
- dnadolny 15y ago
  I've made an option to add controls, which shows the current hashrate and a start/stop button. Right now it's up to the websites using it to enable that if they want to. I like the captcha idea, I've actually been planning something like that. I've got some changes I need to make to my infrastructure before I can do that, but I'm hoping to do it (or let other people do it with the API I'm going to offer). Thanks for the advice about making the user feel appreciated, I think that's quite important.
  - adrianwaj 15y ago
    You've got to keep your eye out on how to access the full power of the client's GPU. I just saw how IE9 and FF4 offer GPU acceleration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7VLB4DcXhg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7VLB4DcXhg Also, when the user is scrolling the page can you throttle down, so basically the idea is not detract from the user experience. On-demand throttling down somehow. Maybe when a tab is not visible.
    - dnadolny 15y ago
      Yeah, I'd really like to use the GPU, it would be a huge speed boost. Was it lagging when you were scrolling down? I try to play nice with the CPU and run it at low priority, so it shouldn't interfere. What OS/browser/java version combo has trouble?
      - adrianwaj 15y ago
        I don't have Java installed and don't want to install it. I wonder if internet cafes and kiosks would be interested in something like this. You could create a url shortener that place their homepage in a frame or something.

5 points by dnadolny 15y ago

orangecat 15y ago

Wow. I'd like a list of sites that use this, so that I know to never do business with them.

dnadolny 15y ago
Can I ask why? The way I see it, websites with advertisements use your mind (by grabbing your attention). This only uses your computer. Which would you rather have a website try to take over?
- rudiger 15y ago
  You really think you'll get effective monetization out of a Bitcoin miner that's written in JavaScript and only run on people's short one-minute visits to a website? Bitcoin mining is orders of magnitude more efficient on a GPU than on a CPU, and that's compared to the fastest C++ clients, not something running in a JavaScript interpreter. Maybe a popular installable game that's played for hours at a time and uses people's excess GPU to mine Bitcoin could be profitable. But this is just a waste of everyone's time.
  - dnadolny 15y ago
    This one isn't javascript, it's based on my browser bitcoin miner[1] which is written in Java. It's about 2000 times faster than the javascript bitcoin miner that I know of. It's around 30-40% slower than one of the optimized C CPU miners, and of course it's a a lot slower than a GPU miner, but it mines at a reasonable rate (and it starts up quickly) As for effective monetization, this is something you can run in addition to regular ads if you wanted, since it doesn't take up any screen space. [1] - http://www.bitcoinplus.com/generate http://www.bitcoinplus.com/generate
    - orangecat 15y ago
      Oh good. So not only does it spike my CPU and kill my battery, I also get the resource overhead of the JVM. This is a reverse DDOS. Sorry if I'm being too hostile, but I like the idea of bitcoin, and don't want to see it become associated with hijacking people's computers.
      - dnadolny 15y ago
        No need to apologize for how you feel - some people love the idea (of supporting a website with their computer power), some people hate it. As for the resource overhead of the JVM, it's infeasible to have a bitcoin miner that uses javascript - that was how I did it initially, as a proof of concept, but it was so slow I abandoned it.

adrianwaj 15y ago

I'd show some stats on the website, like how much mined in previous 24hrs, how much the individual pc is contributing, other sites that run the widget. Make the user feel appreciated. Give them the option to turn it off, or throttle down. Check out the Wibiya toolbar and how that can be switched off. Build a network. Also, consider making the mining as part of a captcha mechanism.

dnadolny 15y ago
I've made an option to add controls, which shows the current hashrate and a start/stop button. Right now it's up to the websites using it to enable that if they want to. I like the captcha idea, I've actually been planning something like that. I've got some changes I need to make to my infrastructure before I can do that, but I'm hoping to do it (or let other people do it with the API I'm going to offer). Thanks for the advice about making the user feel appreciated, I think that's quite important.
- adrianwaj 15y ago
  You've got to keep your eye out on how to access the full power of the client's GPU. I just saw how IE9 and FF4 offer GPU acceleration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7VLB4DcXhg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7VLB4DcXhg Also, when the user is scrolling the page can you throttle down, so basically the idea is not detract from the user experience. On-demand throttling down somehow. Maybe when a tab is not visible.
  - dnadolny 15y ago
    Yeah, I'd really like to use the GPU, it would be a huge speed boost. Was it lagging when you were scrolling down? I try to play nice with the CPU and run it at low priority, so it shouldn't interfere. What OS/browser/java version combo has trouble?
    - adrianwaj 15y ago
      I don't have Java installed and don't want to install it. I wonder if internet cafes and kiosks would be interested in something like this. You could create a url shortener that place their homepage in a frame or something.