New Plugin Allows Developers to Turn iOS Devices Into Bitcoin Mining Bots

[Wilikon]

http://www.macrumors.com/2013/11/01/new-plugin-allows-developers-to-turn-ios-devices-into-bitcoin-mining-bots/

Unity plugin developer Icoplay has come up with a new way for developers to monetize free apps on the App Store while avoiding in-app purchases, through the use of bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin is a digital currency first developed in 2008 that has soared in value in recent years. While bitcoin value fluctuates wildly, a single bitcoin today is worth approximately $200, which makes Bitcoin mining a potentially lucrative endeavor.

Because new bitcoins are generated via complex math problems, Bitcoin mining requires an incredible amount of processing power. Icoplay is aiming to use mining software hidden within apps and games to take advantage of the latent processing power of mobile devices, rewarding the developer with bitcoin. Like distributed computing projects such as SETI@home, Bitcoin mining can be done in small chunks over hundreds or thousands of devices.

[og kush420]

what a bad idea! even if it was made for primecoin instead of bitcoin (then it could actually be profitable) it would still be a terrible idea

[Rluner]

That's going to be such a great help in extending battery life.

[Unluckyduck]

Ios devices are shit enough already, why bog them down with more stuff. Besides how much do they hope to make competing against giant specialised pools.

[cypherdoc]

Icoplay is going to fail badly.

[franky1]

monetize free apps...

just those 3 words make me laugh..

as for apps designed for phones, itll earn just as much as a rasberry Pi, there is already android miners available, so i dont think this is big news. its not going to make Apple rich over night, itll more then likely pee apple users off once they download about 3 different 'free apps' that have a miner constantly running to cover developer costs.

they're about 2 years out of date on getting mobile devices mining. i wouldnt even bother mining on a top spec AMD mobile GPU on a laptop these days

[bg002h]

Won't fly upon app review by apple. Not to mention that they won't mine a dime's worth of coin.

[lucaspm98]

It might work, slightly, with games with hundreds of thousands or millions of players. Other than that I dont see it being worth pissing off players with slow app speed and decreased battery life. There's no way it will replace in-app purchases. I'll give them credit for creativity and imagination though 

[Jabbatheslutt]

This is just a repeat of the ESA counter strike thing. Trying to sneak miners into everything...

[franky1]

It might work, slightly, with games with hundreds of thousands or millions of players. Other than that I dont see it being worth pissing off players with slow app speed and decreased battery life. There's no way it will replace in-app purchases. I'll give them credit for creativity and imagination though  

well a penny a day from a million customers will net them 3.65million a year. but at what 'social' cost. after all media in springtime went out on a rampage when they found out games developers for windows based games had mining engines hidden within the game code.

[MWNinja]

I think apple must have used this in their maps app, as it drains the battery like nothing else out there.

[Gabi]

Lol, so basically they gain what, 1 cent per year?

[bg002h]

Lol, so basically they gain what, 1 cent per year?

Exactly. Not one cent per year per user; just one cent per year. Period.

[maco]

Honestly... this reminds me of ESEA

They used their subscriber's systems to run bitcoin mining bots without their permission (since every subscriber must install their software)... but even if you tell the subscriber this is running in the background, there is sooo many flaws behind this idea.

As a developer for many things, I would hate to use this for my audience's devices... btw, I own bitcoin buzz for Android, and I would not use this (currently the way you explained it..) but if there was an OPTION to allow users the OPPORTUNITY to ENABLE and earn bitcoins while using the APP or in the background -- i might consider it... only if the user SELECTS the option and ACKNOWLEDGES the use of the app but even then I AM very SKEPTICAL and I care about my Audience, a lot.

Also, we would need to allow users STRESS TEST it... and monitor their processing power...

However, I am also against this for many other issues because MOBILE phones are very sensitive in itself... and people will blame the mining process for every problem they have on their device...

I am not sure about this... need more light.