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Browser-based cryptocurrency mining is the method of cryptocurrency mining that is executed inside the browser with the help of Java Scripts [10]. It was first used in May 2011 by bitcoinplus.com [11] - “It used JavaScript code for pooled mining, and website owners could sign up to the service and embed these scripts into their web pages to make page visitors mine for them” [12]. At that time the Price of Bitcoin was edging towards its first notable peak of 30 USD, and the difficulty levels were comparably low as ASIC miners had not yet been introduced. However, the fundamental problem of the innovative concept was the amount of reward generated by mining, and the project was soon declared dead. The first revival of browser-based cryptocurrency mining was in December 2013, when a group of MIT students introduced Tidbit, which was supposed to create an alternative stream of revenue for web pages. Soon after its launch this project was closed as it was prosecuted by the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs on charges of accessing “New Jersey computers without user’s knowledge or consent”. Despite these past failures, Coinhive released browser-based cryptocurrency mining scripts in September 2017. The biggest difference from its predecessors was that Coinhive script was created to mine Monero (XMR), instead of Bitcoin. In other terms the method is more or less similar to Bitcoinplus.com and Tidbit. The main reason why Coinhive succeeded was the surge in the cryptocurrency markets in 2017.
