Funding Open-Source Development with Cryptocurrency Mining

The Pirate Bay recently made the news by mining the cryptocurrency Monero in users' browsers without their knowledge or consent. They did this in an effort to reduce their reliance on advertising, whose utility as a revenue-generator is increasingly being undermined by ad-blocking software.

Around the same time, CBS Showtime was maliciously compromised to likewise mine cryptocurrency in users' browsers, stoking fears that “cryptojacking” attacks will become commonplace in the future. Moreover, a new company called Coinhive began offering in-browser mining as a service, possibly furthering the likelihood of “legitimate” in-browser mining becoming mainstream.

In this article, I will discuss the pros and cons of these mining trends, and propose what I consider to be a superior alternative to this style of ad-hoc, in-browser mining.

Building a Cryptocurrency Mining Rig - Part 5

I’ll conclude my cryptominer series with a “bonus” installment.

The Gainesville Hackerspace graciously invited me to talk about this build. Thanks to Christopher Hoffman of Hoffman Engineering for filming, editing, and uploading the video:

Building a Cryptocurrency Mining Rig - Part 4

This is Part 4 in a series on building a cryptocurrency mining rig.

Previously, I designed and built the miner chassis, corrected motherboard BIOS settings, and optimized my mining strategy. Now, in Part 4, I’ll discuss how I attempted to:

1. Overclock GPUs to increase the mining hashrate
2. Decrease power consumption
3. Increase overall hardware utilization

Before discussing optimizations, let’s review the baseline benchmarks.

Building a Cryptocurrency Mining Rig - Part 3

This is Part 3 in a series on building a cryptocurrency mining rig.

I physically constructed a mining rig in Part 1, and made motherboard BIOS adjustments in Part 2. Now, in Part 3, I’ll discuss how I financially optimized my mining strategy.

Building a Cryptocurrency Mining Rig - Part 2

This is Part 2 in a series on building a cryptocurrency mining rig.

In Part 1, I designed and built a custom miner chassis. In Part 2, I’ll discuss how I resolved some BIOS-related issues that I encountered.