It appears that media outlet Salon is testing an interesting alternative for users that use ad-blocking. The outlet wants to engage in mining cryptocurrency through readers’ computers. If you go to their website with an ad-blocker turned on, you may see a prompt to either disable the ad-blocker on your browser for their website or choose a “suppress ads” option, as reported by Financial Times.
According to FT, if a user were to opt into the latter option, it will allow Salon it put your unused computing power towards mining the cryptocurrency Monero, using a JavaScript-based mining tool from Coinhive.
In addition to advertising (because of decline), other websites have engaged in used cryptocurrency mining. Sometimes, it’s done without the users’ consent. For example, last year, The Pirate Bay admitted to secretly adding Coinhive integration. In addition, hackers have also planted mining malware on other sites. In Salon’s case, a user were to opt-in for the program. The testing for this started on Monday, according to a spokesperson that confirmed the details to FT.
