Ad-blockers are trying to prevent people from accidentally helping criminals mine cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. Malicious code running in the background of thousands of webpages can hijack a visitor’s computing power to generate cryptocurrency in a process called cryptojacking. There is no sure-fire way to avoid cryptojacking, but blacklists managed by ad-blockers should keep you away from the worst culprits.
Around 95 per cent of cryptojacking code found on websites modified from something produced by the German company Coin hive. Their business model is that instead of websites bombarding visitors with adverts, they could mine a small amount of the cryptocurrency Monero, known for its high levels of anonymity. The websites get an income, which Coinhive gets a 30 per cent cut of, and the visitors get ad-free browsing.
However, although Coinhive asks users before nabbing their processing power, hackers are secretly placing
