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> A note about credit cards > Even for our free services, we require a credit card number. We know that's the worst and it gives you heartburn. It's not becaus
by KronisLV 5y ago
> A note about credit cards
> Even for our free services, we require a credit card number. We know that's the worst and it gives you heartburn. It's not because we plan to charge you.
> But here's what happens if you give people freemium full access to a hosting platform: lots and lots of free VMs mining for cryptocurrencies.
> We could tell you we want to prevent crypto mining because we care about the planet, and that would be true. We also have a capitalism nerve that hurts when people spend our money gambling. Your credit card number is the thin plastic line between us and chaos.
I don't really have another alternative to offer here, but i appreciate the transparency and honesty of saying this, regardless of whether they're right or not.
I wish more companies out there actually explained their reasoning behind decisions, instead of essentially just going like: "We're doing this because of undisclosed reasons, please accept that this is how things are going to be."
Of course, in many cases you can come up with a few feasible reasons for why companies make many of their decisions, but being given first hand context for these things feels nice!
- tluyben2 5y agoWouldn't they be able to detect mining? And shut down that VM? I think many hosters would like to have that...
- Aeolun 5y agoPotentialy, but it’s much easier if they never have to look for VM’s mining at all.
- skinkestek 5y agoAs long as it is free miners will keep trying to get around it by for instance running tons of different free accounts each with a obfuscated mining system. Even if you catch all just having them try will be a huge waste of resources.
- lkxijlewlf 5y agoThat just turns into a cat and mouse game.
- Ensorceled 5y agoSure ... look for high CPU then anonymous miners cap their CPU usage. And a few legitimate users (and potential customers) get locked for reasons they don't understand. Repeat with every other trick you use to detect abuse.
- Fabricio20 5y agoIt's not just miners, you also have people using your free or even cheap tiers for DDOS/PortScan/SSH Bruteforce. These ones burn your IP address so it's better to prevent it than to try to catch it later. A credit card check goes a long way as a barrier to entry.
- sascha_sl 5y agoThe alternative is spending limits on the account, including being able to set it to $0 to essentially make it a "free tier" account.