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comment by Who
Who  ·  3716 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: MIT Students Battle New Jersey's Demand for Their Bitcoin Miner’s Source Code

So, what we have here is a javascript bitcoin mining snippet.

This is speculation, but I presume the legal response is due to their code being usable for less than legitimate purposes. This "tidbit" could run on any page, without the user's knowledge.

Without a prompt, disclaimer, or some form of user interaction - it could be seen as a browser exploit of sorts. Imagine the returns of a large visitor base.





thundara  ·  3716 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Without a prompt, disclaimer, or some form of user interaction - it could be seen as a browser exploit of sorts. Imagine the returns of a large visitor base.

This is exact same quote can be used to describe half the javascript files you load on almost any given news site.

Who  ·  3715 days ago  ·  link  ·  

For sure, but this converts processing power into a tangible currency. It's uniquely fit for nefarious use.

If I were a spam network owner, I would have this on every page I served. If such a scheme existed, how do you think the media would respond?

thundara  ·  3715 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    For sure, but this converts processing power into a tangible currency. It's uniquely fit for nefarious use.

Again, user tracking and data mining for use in advertising. If it ever did become a widespread problem, CPU usage can easily be countered by browsers implementing resource limits on tabs, which is already ridiculously easy on some operating systems.

Who  ·  3715 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Ah, I didn't realize you were referring to other monetizable examples! Great parallels, I'm a bit ashamed I didn't pick up on them myself.

To sidetrack back to my original presumption, do you have any thoughts as to why they (these tidbit developers) are being met with legal action?

thundara  ·  3714 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I don't see any legitimate reason at the surface, but I didn't really dig deeper