The Pirate Bay is experimenting with an unconventional way of
raising money: hijacking visitors' web browsers to "mine"
cryptocurrencies.
The torrent-news site
TorrentFreak is reporting that the piracy site has introduced
a piece of software that stealthily uses the processing power of
users' computers to make some extra cash for the site.
How? Well, very quickly: Cryptocurrencies (a class of digital
currencies, the most famous of which is bitcoin) don't have any
central bank or regulatory authority. Instead, people on the
network are encouraged to contribute to the network's upkeep by
offering their computers' processing power in exchange for a
chance to "mine" coins or currency.
This is what the software The Pirate Bay has introduced is doing
— but it makes use of other people's computer hardware
to do so, rather than its own.
Tuesday, September 19, 2017
Is The Pirate Bay’s In-Browser Cryptocurrency Mining Better Than Its Crappy Ads
The modern internet runs on advertisements. Arguably the two most powerful companies in Silicon Valley—Facebook and Google—make
billions of dollars in revenue each year almost exclusively by selling
customer data to advertising firms. Although these products are
nominally free, their users are actually paying in lost privacy.
Over the weekend, the torrent site Pirate Bay conducted an experiment to see if it could replace the advertisements that keep the site afloat with a new monetization scheme: Using visitors' browsers to mine cryptocurrency.
Although the Pirate Bay is perhaps the freest of free services on the internet, it has operating costs like any other website. Historically, these costs have been supported through ad revenue and donations, but as the Pirate Bay admins detailed in a blog post, "we really want to get rid of all the ads."
It makes sense. The Pirate Bay isn't exactly known for its tasteful and legitimate advertisements, which are often laced with malware. In fact, it was the Pirate Bay's terrible advertisements that prompted its co-founder Peter Sunde to argue that the site should be left to die after it was taken offline following a raid of its servers.
Over the weekend, the torrent site Pirate Bay conducted an experiment to see if it could replace the advertisements that keep the site afloat with a new monetization scheme: Using visitors' browsers to mine cryptocurrency.
Although the Pirate Bay is perhaps the freest of free services on the internet, it has operating costs like any other website. Historically, these costs have been supported through ad revenue and donations, but as the Pirate Bay admins detailed in a blog post, "we really want to get rid of all the ads."
It makes sense. The Pirate Bay isn't exactly known for its tasteful and legitimate advertisements, which are often laced with malware. In fact, it was the Pirate Bay's terrible advertisements that prompted its co-founder Peter Sunde to argue that the site should be left to die after it was taken offline following a raid of its servers.
The Pirate Bay Browser 6.8
The Pirate Bay Browser is an app devoted exclusively to the famous
torrent portal The Pirate Bay. That is, the application lets you search
for any torrent file on the portal from the comfort of an interface that
has been adapted to touch screen devices.
Importantly, The Pirate Bay Browser does not allow downloading or the playback of files. All this must be done by other programs. For this reason, The Pirate Bay Browser is an ideal for use in conjunction with apps such as uTorrent or BitTorrent, since they themselves are able to download the files.
The Pirate Bay Browser does exactly what it says on the tin: it is a fast and convenient way to search for files on the largest torrent portal in the world. With this application installed, if a torrent exists, you will be able to find it and download it.
Importantly, The Pirate Bay Browser does not allow downloading or the playback of files. All this must be done by other programs. For this reason, The Pirate Bay Browser is an ideal for use in conjunction with apps such as uTorrent or BitTorrent, since they themselves are able to download the files.
The Pirate Bay Browser does exactly what it says on the tin: it is a fast and convenient way to search for files on the largest torrent portal in the world. With this application installed, if a torrent exists, you will be able to find it and download it.
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