How in-browser mining could be an alternative payment solution.

How could in-browser mining (when used the right way) bring totally new economic ecosystems to life? How could crowdfunding based sites, donation based sites, game publishers and streaming services (ie : twitch.tv) take advantage of asking their users to create value from their processor?

COMMON PERCEPTION & CURRENT STATUS-QUO
George Savile Halifax, a famous English writer and politician once said, “Malice is a greater magnifying-glass than kindness.” This statement holds true in every sense of the word in today’s cryptocurrency-crazed world. Everything that is wrong with cryptocurrency and everything bad done with it gets magnified and blown out of proportion when compared to all the positive aspects of the crypto-world and everything that is good about it. But why is this the status-quo?

Surely over the past 10 years, people’s attitude has changed towards cryptocurrencies? In reality, there cannot be a short clear-cut answer to this. While most people have warmed up to Cryptocurrencies and have essentially become millionaires overnight, some have lost their fortunes while being burdened with the resulting economic ramifications. Despite all the controversies and unstable markets; cryptocurrencies still remain the domain of the tech-geek and a little too complicated for an average man to fully understand.

The fear of the unknown and the air of mystery, as well as misinformation thickens, especially when it comes to online mining services. The first thing that might pop into one’s head in this regard could be the endless list of scams and Ponzi schemes associated with online cloud mining services as well as the inconspicuous industry of cryptojacking.

Readers of this article may not need a reminder of the definition cryptojacking, but for the select few who are new to this world, cryptojacking is defined as the act of various online websites stealing your computer’s processing power without your consent, to mine cryptocurrencies. This industry was very active when cryptocurrencies were new. Back then, even a little processing power -measured in hashes, was enough to mine a lot of coins. However, this industry suddenly died out when the crypto-prices crashed between 2013–2014. Lately, in recent months with the rise of crypto prices and popularity, this industry seems to have found a new pair of flippers. These days it is quite common to find many websites that inconspicuously steal their visitor’s processing power to mine various cryptos. With the advent of Monero and its in-browser mining support, along with the traditionally used JavaScript hacks, cryptojacking has become a formidable menace in its own right.

This sadly, is the current state of affairs. A niche industry where misinformation or the lack of which fuels a certain sense of distrust among people that aren’t tech savvy. But what most people commonly fail to understand is that cryptojacking in itself is just a tool, a method by which something malicious is done, in this case; stealing processing power from unsuspecting visitors to a website. But what if this knowledge could be used in a productive way? Then that would be a disruptive event, something that can change the status-quo and shake up this industry.


CHANGE IN STATUS QUO
For better or worse, Coinhive -a JavaScript miner for Monero, has changed the whole perception of in-browser mining. It has enabled a countless array of devices to be connected to a mining pool through web-browsers. Out of all the coins, Monero was chosen as the initial coin that this miner worked with because the algorithm used for Monero is called Cryptonight. A special algorithm that was designed to work better with consumer end desktops & laptops.

This isn’t something new though, back in 2011 another website called BitcoinPlus.com used to enable in-browser mining of Bitcoins. Many similar services have popped up since then and died down with the rise and fall of Bitcoin prices and difficulty. So in a big way, the introduction of Monero, the Cryptonight algorithm and in-browser miners like Coinhive has opened up new possibilities. The big difference this time in the revival of in-browser mining is the availability of many alternative cryptocurrencies and tokens alike that make use of the Cryptonight algorithm. So even if one of these coins becomes redundant to mine, the cryptojacking community will always have an endless supply of coins to fall back on.

THE FUTURE
What if a new service is poised to disrupt the industry? The same tried and tested technology notorious cryptojackers and hackers used in the past could be utilized in a revolutionary way as a payment solution. How about an ecosystem where a responsible and compliance-friendly team implements the same in-browser mining system and establishes an economy in which profitable returns from mining could be distributed as payment.

Let’s think beyond just cryptomining for a change. Video streaming services could use the idle processor power of its users to give them an ad free experience. These services could generate revenue solely from mining.

Crowdfunding services for example, would not only be able to benefit from people having the option to pitch in real cash for a cause, but they could also just keep the crowdfunding campaign page open in a tab on their browser. If you’re a gamer then you must know that many RPG games require its players to toil away on a grinding task over & over again. Equaly the developers rely too heavily on in-game microtransactions, and surely are annoying and detrimental to the gamer’s in-game experience.

The way to get rid of these annoying hindrances in a pay-to-win game is to purchase some form of premium package. What if developers used in-game mining of cryptos for generating revenue? That way all the annoying ads and grinding tasks from the game could be eliminated or reduced substantially without the apparent upfront investment from the player to purchase premium content.

The sky’s the limit when you think about what this technology can be used for.
To make all this a possibility, the required tech already exists today. All that is needed now is the right team with the right mentality \o/