Making a case for JavaScript, in-browser Mining

Re:Making a case for JavaScript, in-browser Mining by Santosh83 on Thursday February 15, 2018 @07:49AM (#16383586)

When I pay in cash (digital or otherwise), I know what I give out in terms of value for goods or services. This concept of renting out your computer time on the other hand is vague. How much 'currency' will be mined? Will it be proportional to the goods/services I get to use in exchange? How long will the process take? What if my system fails midway during 'payment'? Can this concept be extended to run arbitrary code in your browser in exchange for the service? Right now Javascript is at least nominally related to the page you access. But what if tomorrow the code you're asked to execute is totally unconnected with the service being offered?

This just smacks of convenience for the implementers and as for the user, it exchanges a straightforward system for a murky deal.

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Re:Making a case for JavaScript, in-browser Mining by okxyd on Thursday February 15, 2018 @08:38AM (#16383850)

>When I pay in cash (digital or otherwise), I know what I give out in terms of value for goods or services. This concept of renting out your computer time on the other hand is vague.

When you watch ads and get data-mined do your really now how much value you pay? I don't think so, it's safe to safe that all of us have no clue about the price we indirectly pay for services we on internet, most of it is just free in appearance.

>How much 'currency' will be mined? Will it be proportional to the goods/services I get to use in exchange? How long will the process take? What if my system fails midway during 'payment'?

The norms are not established yet since it's a totally new way to monetize content on internet however how much you will pay will probably be determined in hashes. Here an example with a new blockchain (Nimiq) of a micropayment you could do: http://coinmiq.com/mine/eyJ3YWxsZXQiOiJOUTI3IFJDNUIgOUU1QSBT...

>This just smacks of convenience for the implementers and as for the user, it exchanges a straightforward system for a murky deal.

I disagree, in my opinion it opens an entire new way to do micropayments on the web.

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Re:Making a case for JavaScript, in-browser Mining by scotty79 on Thursday February 15, 2018 @08:12AM (#16383688)

Actually that's what I like about the idea. Reading prices, considering value of the things I buy in relation to those prices, picking most worthy alternative is a job that is assigned to every consumer by free market. I find it bothersome and after two decades or so of being consumer it is boring for me. Just saying "pay this guy whatever" without the fear of being taken to the cleaners sounds very attractive to me.

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Re:Making a case for JavaScript, in-browser Mining by SturgeonsLaw on Thursday February 15, 2018 @10:02AM (#16384508)

Hopefully it would encourage more interesting, long form content that keeps people on the page

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Re:Making a case for JavaScript, in-browser Mining by philipodonnell on Thursday February 15, 2018 @09:41AM (#16384311)

> it exchanges a straightforward system for a murky deal

You call the current ad-funded 'you get the service free but we secretly monetize everything about you' a straight-forward system?

This seems way more direct to me. Want to consume content? Run code in your browser while you do so.

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Re:Making a case for JavaScript, in-browser Mining by Santosh83 on Thursday February 15, 2018 @10:23AM (#16384702)

No I meant straight up paying for services through money, not selling yourself as a product. The former is better than letting ads hound you, and in my mind, better than being forced to rent out your system's hardware in exchange.

I would honestly prefer more services and content creators asking for reasonable payments and more integration of multiple, seamless, international payment options into sites and services. Currently a major reason I don't pay for some services I otherwise would is because the payment process is very clunky or downright broken.

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Re:Making a case for JavaScript, in-browser Mining by philipodonnell on Thursday February 15, 2018 @10:33AM (#16384806)

> No I meant straight up paying for services through money, not selling yourself as a product.

Ah, gotcha. TBF, most of the discussion around this is about replacing ad-funded models with browser-based mining, not replacing direct payments.

> I don't pay for some services I otherwise would is because the payment process is very clunky or downright broken.

This is a great reason to look harder at in-browser mining.

Electrical utilities have far lower payment processing costs than SAAS payment providers like Stripe. They also provide a way of aggregating many microtransactions in a way that credit-card networks actively try to prevent.

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