Classic banner ads, intrusive ads and annoying pop-ups will soon be replaced by on-site Cryptomining. And this is how it’s going down.

We have all been there. You call up a website and just as you think you can see its content a large pop-up banner plasters its weight over the entire content. Or how about listening to your favorite tracks only to be interrupted by some annoying commercial or announcement blaring into your headphones? In both cases there is always this tiny dissonance between A. „Yes, I know it’s free and you folks have to feed your families, too.“ and B. „But why, oh why, would you want to shove down this unspeakable horror down my neurons?„. Wouldn’t it be great to know you give something else of value than money (no, we won’t submit to your paywall!) or attention (no, we will not look at your cheap banner!) and still be able to consume content non-stop?

Enter Cryptomining

Cryptomining is the process of utilizing computing power to generate digital currency. In return this digital currency can be exchanged into real fiat currency. The whole process is actually a little more complex and I could include lots of buzzword bingo here but for the time being I want to keep it rather simple.

Using Cryptomining on a website would enable business owners to turn a profit by utilizing a users computing power. A user would land on a website, its owner would ask if that user would like to see ads or share some CPU cycles to generate fractions of a digital currency. If the user opts into sharing CPU power the owner of a business can still turn a profit while users will not be bothered by banners and other attention-grabbing nonsense. Showtime seemed to have a rather bad start when integrating cryptomining into their website. But as it turns out, if website owners go about the integration of Cryptomining a little more transparent the outcome may be way more favorable.