Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: Would You Accept 'Bitcoin-Ware' Apps?
After the E-Sports Entertainment Association admitted to sneaking Bitcoin-mining code into its client software, an anonymous reader writes "I thought that could have been a pretty clever idea, if it was made clear to the users that they could get the app and run it for free as long as, let's say, they accept that it would be run for Bitcoin mining for five hours a week, when their computer is idle. That could make a lot of profit for the developers if their app is truly successful, and without the users having to pay much (only a limited number of hours per week, and if the user is no longer running the app then it won't try to mine anymore). What do you think about this?"
What if this came along with an airtight guarantee? Like: no tracking, snooping, all Facebook/Twitter/G+ buttons turned OFF until you click to activate them, never selling your info, forever, amen. Just mine us Bitcoins... and only while you're on the site.
I'll be honest, I would take that deal over the implicit "pay via getting spied on" internet we have today.
+5.
As the family IT guy, most of what I do is fix the damage done by free games. My cousins teenage kids seem to ruin their laptops by installing hundreds of adware programs on their computers which eventually destroy it. Perhaps this would end this trend of destruction.
However this would create another problem in turn. How would bitware apps fight for your idle processor? If left to their own devices they would get greedy and attach higher and higher priorities to their threads in order to muscle out the competitors app. I guess that you would need like a steam deployment platform running that shared your bitcoins based on the amount of time you spent playing each game?