Salon.com has introduced crypto-mining as a new way to earn from its visitors.
The website now allows readers to lend their device’s processing power to help the publication mine for cryptocurrency.
“For our beta program, we’ll start by applying your processing power to mine cryptocurrencies to recoup lost ad revenue when you use an ad blocker,” Salon said in on its website.
The option will only be available to visitors who are using a browser add-on to block ads, and is presented as an alternative to whitelisting the website from the likes of Ad Block Plus.
The mining process is powered by Coinhive. Coinhive’s technology has previously been used in malware to carry out the same process on unsuspecting visitors without their consent.
Coinhive’s technology mines for Monero cryptocurrency, which was launched in April 2014.
Cryptocurrency mining can require large amounts of power and processing clout, as demonstrated in Iceland where the popularity of crypto-mining has doubled the country’s power consumption. This has led some users, particularly on older devices, to complain of performance dips as their CPU gets to work.
“Mining uses more of your resources which means your computer works a bit harder and uses more electricity than if you were just passively browsing the site with ads,” Salon said on its website.