The idea of using browser cycles to mine cryptocurrency is nothing new. Another recent effort: <a href="https://oysterprotocol.com/" rel="nofollow">https://oysterprotocol.com/</a> .<p>The problem is that savvy users will install additional plugins to block these Javascript programs from running, the same way that they use Adblock. Unsavvy users will just have a shorter battery life.<p>Another effort in this space is Brave, and Basic Attention Tokens (BAT). Instead of expending browser resources to mine, the idea is that people start using a special browser (Brave) that dispenses BATs to the websites you dwell the most on / get the most value out of. Then presumably the site that receives the BAT could exchange them for USD.