I also wonder this. Also, say I have a highly trafficked site with a worthless customer base (say a puppy pictures site for 6 year olds) is there a way I can embed your applet into my site and have it generate me bitcoins invisibly to the six year old? I'd much rather do this than spam them with useless adwords.
Edit: I'm aware that this will only generate about half a cent per hour, but you would be surprised how long kids can browse useless pictures.
That came up on the bitcoin forums (http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8780.0). I've got plans for doing something like that - let you embed the miner in your website so your visitors mine bitcoin for you. It's a really cool idea because you get money based on how long people stay on your page, rather than how many pageviews or click-throughs you have. Instead it's based on a more accurate measure of user interest - time spent on the page.
If anyone's interested in that, leave a reply here, or email me at donny@bitcoinplus.com and I'll let you know when it's ready.
Advertising, no contest. Annoying, intrusive ads I have no qualms about adblocking, because they will never actually get me to buy a product. Helpful, non-invasive ads and clearly disclosed affiliate links? Feel free, since I'm getting some benefit too. There is no way for me to benefit from you using my cpu (ignoring the actual content in this comparison, obviously).
For some people, yes. For me personally, no. I find them interesting, but I'm not investing in them really.
I think the best way to do it would be to ask, and be very clear about what you're doing. Some people would gladly help you, but others may be more wary.
Heres how I would do it: have a Bitcoin Plus (or whatever) widget box clearly visible on the website. Have it tell the user exactly what it is doing, including the current speed. Highlight the fact that it is an alternative to advertisement and that it only uses idle processing time (or if its used together with advertisement, state that its used to help pay for the site). Finally, provide a stop/pause button so that if it really annoys somebody or actually is causing cpu spikes, its easy to turn off.
Comments
I also wonder this. Also, say I have a highly trafficked site with a worthless customer base (say a puppy pictures site for 6 year olds) is there a way I can embed your applet into my site and have it generate me bitcoins invisibly to the six year old? I'd much rather do this than spam them with useless adwords.
Edit: I'm aware that this will only generate about half a cent per hour, but you would be surprised how long kids can browse useless pictures.
That came up on the bitcoin forums (http://forum.bitcoin.org/index.php?topic=8780.0). I've got plans for doing something like that - let you embed the miner in your website so your visitors mine bitcoin for you. It's a really cool idea because you get money based on how long people stay on your page, rather than how many pageviews or click-throughs you have. Instead it's based on a more accurate measure of user interest - time spent on the page.
If anyone's interested in that, leave a reply here, or email me at donny@bitcoinplus.com and I'll let you know when it's ready.
Just my opinion, but this feels really scummy. I'd wonder why your site caused my CPU to spike, and probably consciously avoid it from then on.
I get where you're coming from. Here's an interesting thought: consider this as an alternative to advertising.
Which would you rather: a website use your mind by taking your attention to an advertisement, or a website using your CPU?
Advertising, no contest. Annoying, intrusive ads I have no qualms about adblocking, because they will never actually get me to buy a product. Helpful, non-invasive ads and clearly disclosed affiliate links? Feel free, since I'm getting some benefit too. There is no way for me to benefit from you using my cpu (ignoring the actual content in this comparison, obviously).
I'm sure any embeddable bitcoin miner will be added to adblock pretty quickly, so you won't have to worry.
Would it change your mind if you were given a portion of the bitcoins generated while you were on a site that was doing this?
For some people, yes. For me personally, no. I find them interesting, but I'm not investing in them really.
I think the best way to do it would be to ask, and be very clear about what you're doing. Some people would gladly help you, but others may be more wary.
Heres how I would do it: have a Bitcoin Plus (or whatever) widget box clearly visible on the website. Have it tell the user exactly what it is doing, including the current speed. Highlight the fact that it is an alternative to advertisement and that it only uses idle processing time (or if its used together with advertisement, state that its used to help pay for the site). Finally, provide a stop/pause button so that if it really annoys somebody or actually is causing cpu spikes, its easy to turn off.