Pirate Bay is Mining Cryptocurrency Again, No Opt Out

[Ernesto]

Last month The Pirate Bay caused some uproar by adding a Javascript-based cryptocurrency miner to its website.

The miner utilizes *****U power from visitors to generate Monero coins for the site, providing an extra source of revenue.

The Pirate Bay only tested the option briefly, but that was enough to inspire many others to follow suit. Now, a few weeks later, Pirate Bay has also turned on the miners again.

The miner is not directly embedded in the site’s core code but runs through an ad script. Many ad blockers and anti-malware tools are stopping these request, but people who don’t use any will see a clear spike in *****U usage when they access the site.

The Pirate Bay team previously said that they were testing the miner to see if it can replace ads. While there is some real revenue potential, for now, it’s running in addition to the regular banners. It’s unclear whether the current mining period is another test or if it will run permanently from now on.

The miner does appear to be throttled to a certain degree, so most users might not even notice that it’s running.

Pirate Bay load requests

Running a cryptocurrency miner such as the Coin-Hive script TPB is currently using is not without risk. Aside from user complaints, there is an issue that may make it harder for the site to operate in the future.

Last week we reported that CDN provider Cloudflare had suspended the account of torrent proxy site ProxyBunker, flagging its coin miner as malware. This means that The Pirate Bay now risks losing the Cloudflare service, which they rely on for DDoS protection, among other things.

Cloudflare’s suspension of ProxyBunker occurred even though the site provided users with an option to disable the miner. This functionality was implemented by Coinhive after the script was misused by some sites, which ran it without alerting their users.

The Pirate Bay currently has no opt-out option, nor has it informed users about the latest mining efforts. This could lead to another problem since Coinhive said it would crack down on customers who failed to keep users in the loop.

“We will verify this opt-in on our servers and will implement it in a way that it can not be circumvented. We will pledge to keep the opt-in intact at all times, without exceptions,” the Coinhive team previously noted.

The Pirate Bay team has not commented on the issue thus far. In theory, it’s possible that a rogue advertiser is responsible for the latest mining efforts. If that’s the case it will be disabled soon enough.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.



Originally Published: Wed, 11 Oct 2017 17:22:44 +0000
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[Sid]

In before the trolls.

1. If Winston has implemented this, after last time and in spite of the clear warning put out by Cloudflare, it is unlikely he will backtrack.

2. That it has been implemented via an ad script and spite of the clear warning put out by Cloudflare implies that might not be Winston's doing, in which case it probably won't last more than a day or two.

3. None of the TPB/SB staff here approve of or have any control over opt-outless mining.

Our fingers are crossed just as much as yours.



PS. Use an ad blocker, seriously, not just for this but for the Internet in general. If you don't, you really are begging for trouble.

[contrail]

uBlock Origin will do the job, no need to wait for Cloudflare. TPB will do their job and stay the galaxy's most resilient bittorrent site.

[Killua]

uBlock Origin will do the job, no need to wait for Cloudflare. TPB will do their job and stay the galaxy's most resilient bittorrent site.

I wouldn't mind a site using a chunk of my *****U IF a small percentage of the money mined is shared with me, let's say: I left a tab open for 10 minutes, 20 or 30% of the bits mined is sent to me. It would encourage users and stuff and i'd would be a win-win situation.

[dale19891]

It should be like if *****U usage of PC is below 25% then the website will mine but if above 25% then mining will stop because user is using PC for other things.

[Keka_Umans]

I wouldn't mind a site using a chunk of my *****U IF a small percentage of the money mined is shared with me, let's say: I left a tab open for 10 minutes,  20 or 30% of the bits mined is sent to me. It would encourage users and stuff and i'd would be a win-win situation.

The potentially limitless amount of things to download 100% free is what you get
TPB doesn't owe its users anything, that said, they usually go out of their way to accommodate users.

Asking for a percent of the miner is the same as asking for a chunk of the ad revenue because you have to look at them.
Not to mention, since coin-hive keeps 30% of all profits mined, unless the number changed, after TPB pays the users, they made a whopping nothing out of it
So 100% sure that will never happen.

[dueda]

Maybe the future is rethinking TPB as not only a tracker directory, but a reviews (it already has comments, but need to improve a lot); social file sharing; rewarding users for *****U use, reviews and moderating in kudos or other benefits; anything is possible if enough people help develop and operate, and I'm sure many options have been discussed. The crew just need to kickstart? The Pirate Bay Android Game And Social App would be cool, even with ads...

[krosis]

Maybe the future is rethinking TPB as not only a tracker directory, but a reviews (it already has comments, but need to improve a lot); social file sharing; rewarding users for *****U use, reviews and moderating in kudos or other benefits; anything is possible if enough people help develop and operate, and I'm sure many options have been discussed. The crew just need to kickstart? The Pirate Bay Android Game And Social App would be cool, even with ads...

No.  Please no.  Never.  No.

[dueda]

dueda
The Pirate Bay Android Game And Social App would be cool, even with ads...

No.  Please no.  Never.  No.

Lol - Yep, sounds gnastly. Funny, but also a sound matter.

But what would be so terrible with that IF the service could still be acessed free of cost?

I mean, the site can keep up with new internet control policies (hey USA), offer more things and make money - Lawyers, promotion, backup systems, security, power, coffee, bus, etc. Even motivation for developers and creative thinking.

One way to improve is to look the other ***** playing: gsmarena, xda-developers, youtube, even the "fascistbook" have lessons to tell.
And Android is real (80% of global mobile market), it came to stay and took a big chunk of our on-screen time. TPB better be ready for whatever Goo has in store.

Just my two bits

[Sid]

TPB values privacy, it's why we ask so little of uploaders and even less of downloaders.

Social networking depends upon people sacrificing their privacy. That is anathema to us.

Your suggestion makes as much sense, and is as likely to be implemented, as suggesting that McDonald's switch to a totally vegetarian menu.