Ask Slashdot: Would You Accept 'Bitcoin-Ware' Apps? 232
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?"
Sorry, no. (Score:4, Interesting)
I have only so much extra CPU and GP power and I donate all of it to cancer research, so I don't have any left to give to parasites.
Re:Why play games? (Score:4, Interesting)
Because if you're using it professionally in the office, it isn't your bill.
Re:So It's An Indirect Intangible Gamble? (Score:4, Interesting)
So basically you're proposing a move from just give me a little cash upfront to let me leech off your electricity bill in a ridiculously circuitous way to gamble for BTC (keeping in mind that the more people that adopt your model of "BitCoin-Ware" the more people will be vying for BTC the less your expected value will return)?
An interesting idea and definitely one for the mathematicians but simply unsustainable and risky and ... I guess deceptive if you don't point out the small cost to their electrical bill ...
Right it's zero sum. pay for it up front or pay for it on the electric bill. It only makes sense when either
1) there's a scam to be had (e.g. the landlord or company is paying your utility bill)
2) you can use the heat the electricy is producing for some purpose you needed anyway. That is to say if your computer is sitting next to a space heater then you might as well turn off the space heater and turn on the bit coin engine.
3) you want to donate your cycles to charity and the charity would be better off with the cycles than a cash donation. (e.g the charity is doing some big calaculation but doesn't want to bother with the hassle of buying and maintaining or admining rented servers.)
Bitcoin (Score:2, Interesting)
I am not sure I like the idea of money "just appearing" in ones pocket because you happen to have more computing power than anyone else to mine bit coins.
Pray tell, just who currently does that happen to be?
NSA
CIA
Pentagon
Wall Street
Federal Reserve
All of the above have the most computing power for bitcoin mining.
No thanks to Bitcoin.
The entire idea of a currency is that it is suppose to be the holder of intrinsic value, and cannot be meddled with by any single entity to gain an advantage in trade.
Historically, that means Gold and Silver, contrary to what your government tells you, Gold and Silver are the only real money of historic note.
Here are some ways to get more silver and gold:
1) Mine for it.
2) Destroy whole countries and take it.
3) Tax the people into starvation.
***4) Actually perform real work and be productive and trade it for goods and services.
Banks hate all 4, especially 4 because healthy economies mean fewer people have to borrow and they would much rather do 2 because afterwards countries go into debt to rebuild but the risk is, you could end up getting your head chopped off.
As everyone here knows, bankers do not like risk, and want the sure thing.
So today, bankers like fiat currency. They love it. They can enter a number in a computer, and do absolutely no work for any of the money because the society which uses it must accept it to live and work.
So with today's fiat currencies, bankers have access to vast armies of slaves. This only works of course, if everyone doesn't see the man behind the curtain, printing money like mad for himself and his cronies. Today, that mostly means politicians and technocrats.
You can see this happening in Europe right now, as countries are falling into a economic dictatorship with whole societies collapsing and the bankers ripping off people in broad daylight.
So far, people over there seem to be OK with it in Greece and Cyprus. So, expect the bankers to move on to other countries and do the same.
But besides this mischief, I think people just want a currency which is fair, and that is not a fiat currency where elite people can just print money and live a life of luxury.
So alternative currencies are being explored.
Gold and Silver though, is very hard to manipulate. It can be done, but it is very hard to do and maintain control over it as you can't print it and its value cannot be made equal to zero....
Unless of course everyone is dead and with the way these bankers are out of control, it may very well come to that if the Federal Reserve and its cronies at the IMF, IBofS are not stopped.
I mean we have France invading Mali right now because Germany wants it Gold back. I don't mean a gold coin, I mean, France owes Germany TONS and TONS and TONS of Gold.
-Hack
Re:So It's An Indirect Intangible Gamble? (Score:5, Interesting)
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?