Exactly. A lot of overreacting idiots in this thread. Nobody yet even knows if this will have a noticeable impact on battery.
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New Plugin Allows Developers to Turn iOS Devices Into Bitcoin Mining Bots
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Bitcoins are a wanton and profligate waste of limited energy resources used to calculate them, all so that money-laundering and tax-evasion cannot be tracked by governments.
Meanwhile, a new app using the plug-in is released to ... calculate bitcoins, with a percentage going to the developer.
Meanwhile, a new app using the plug-in is released to ... calculate bitcoins, with a percentage going to the developer.
Bitcoin is a scam in my book too. And I think this plugin is a scam too. This is just going to result in Unity being used to make really crappy games, like it isn't already. That, and people are going to invest in a lot of assets to churn them out in order to use this.
And it's going to be pointless because it's just going to result in people opening these games, playing for a minute, then giving it a one star review, then deleting it. People don't even like installing Unity based games to begin with because they tend to be huge in size for what little content they have.
The developers who are going to use it, are shameless.
And it's going to be pointless because it's just going to result in people opening these games, playing for a minute, then giving it a one star review, then deleting it. People don't even like installing Unity based games to begin with because they tend to be huge in size for what little content they have.
The developers who are going to use it, are shameless.
A single device won't. The idea is that you would have hundreds of phones doing this for the developer, who gets all the rewards. Not the users
Well, according to estimates the network currently averages 12 megawatt hours ($1,800) to mine 1 Bitcoin (figures from here). The iPhone battery provides about 5.5 watt hours on one charge and let's make the optimistic assumption that the iPhone is TEN times more energy efficient than the average mining device. If this thing is going to provide a $2 income per app user then yes, it's going to need to destroy those batteries and not just for a few minutes - for 2,200 complete charge cycles. That's at least 2 dead batteries to raise $2.
The idea is already laughable, but compounding it with the claim that developers might tune it down to sneak in a few computations while the user isn't going to notice is just beyond ludicrous.
For all of those people who are saying BitCoins are a scam... tell that to the guy who bought a flat a while back after cashing in some BitCoins he had forgotten about. 
Yeah, this is all stuff I already understood. What I don't understand is, what a bitcoin produces that is of any Actual use or value to anyone, other than the arbitrary aspect of them being considered currency. And it seems based on a lot of posts in this topic that bitcoin only produces a value equal to the amount of energy costs associated with the mining. Also, as much as I like the idea of a universal, multinational currency, I don't understand how its value is not still affected by exchange rates, assuming it has any actual exchange value for national currency. So I'm left with this: Bitcoin is a universal online currency thats value is based on a (seemingly) 1:1 ratio of cost to produce, where all users of Bitcoin determine its value at any given point under no centralized governance. But few bitcoin miners are capable of turning even a 10% ROI, to produce something with absolutely no guaranteed value because there is no central governance to enforce its use or worth, and it does not produce any physical or electronic item of value that can be used to convert it back into the currency that was used to mine it. It all seems like a universal waste of time, effort, and real money.
The potential for lawsuits based on unauthorized access of client machines is immense here. But then, what is the case history based on BitCoins?
This is the equivalent of buying a car and then having gnomes come out of the car and renting out your garage for the manufacturer's profit while parked.
This is the equivalent of buying a car and then having gnomes come out of the car and renting out your garage for the manufacturer's profit while parked.
You guys have no idea what are you writing about!!!
First of all I don't see any way for mining in the background when you don't use the app, because on iOS it is simply impossible... Secondly as I get it from the article, a single phone does not need to mine a complete bitcoin: it is distribiuted computing - each phone will be solving a fraction of the sollution and only while the app is running. So having 100k players playing your game might just mine you some coins.
You all scream that this is a scam... There are tonnes of ****** apps out there that display intrusive adds before and after each level (with an extra add in the middle of the level). Do you think that having to pay for "fuel" or "instant repairs" in a game that is designed to be unplayable if you don't isn't a scam??? Ability to pay $50 or $100 in a "free" mobile game (which is more than a cost of a premium PC / Console title) isn't a scam???
You all allowed big companies to abuse the industry with ****** DLC / IAPs / adds, and when a clean, unobtrusive sollution arrives that allow you to play a free game with a clean addless interface you all act offended...
First of all I don't see any way for mining in the background when you don't use the app, because on iOS it is simply impossible... Secondly as I get it from the article, a single phone does not need to mine a complete bitcoin: it is distribiuted computing - each phone will be solving a fraction of the sollution and only while the app is running. So having 100k players playing your game might just mine you some coins.
You all scream that this is a scam... There are tonnes of ****** apps out there that display intrusive adds before and after each level (with an extra add in the middle of the level). Do you think that having to pay for "fuel" or "instant repairs" in a game that is designed to be unplayable if you don't isn't a scam??? Ability to pay $50 or $100 in a "free" mobile game (which is more than a cost of a premium PC / Console title) isn't a scam???
You all allowed big companies to abuse the industry with ****** DLC / IAPs / adds, and when a clean, unobtrusive sollution arrives that allow you to play a free game with a clean addless interface you all act offended...
Two problems here - you can't use a desktop computer for bit coin mining anyway. The cost of the power was more than the return of coins. Very specific GPU processing was used as of last check, super powerful and able to decrypt at high volumes.
Secondly its no where near 100 iPhones to one desktop, try working on Geekbench scores for more accuracy.
I am sure it will be fine with android devices but I can see apple rejecting the binary if this is found in the future.
In other words, it's like any other money.
It has its legitimate uses, though; subscriptions for an actual ongoing service, or additional features. For example, Pinball Arcade puts out a couple new machines every month, any of which can be bought individually. The alternative would be either no incentive for them to add new tables or else releasing each one as a standalone.
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The way I see it, the developer doesn't really care about the bitcoin mining or the app developers. They just want to make their $80 off each fool who thinks they are going to get rich inserting the code into their app.
But they'd better be prepared for the backlash from their customers when they find out they are wasting their battery life.
But they'd better be prepared for the backlash from their customers when they find out they are wasting their battery life.
Bitcoin? Why Bitcoin?
Concerns of eating battery life aside? Bitcoin seems like practically the worst possible choice for an iOS plug-in to try to mine, vs. other alt-coin choices.
Sure, Bitcoin is the best known and most widely used ... but it's also so valuable because it takes such a massive amount of processor power to mine it. Everyone seriously attempting it is buying $8,000+ dedicated mining machines with special ASICs in them that can do nothing BUT run the algorithm to mine the coins.
A coin like "Primecoin" (also abbreviated "xpm") is designed to be mined with a standard CPU as opposed to video card GPUs or dedicated ASICs -- so it would seem much more suitable a choice. Might not be worth a lot, but if you have millions of iOS devices working together to mine it, you'd at least make something.
Concerns of eating battery life aside? Bitcoin seems like practically the worst possible choice for an iOS plug-in to try to mine, vs. other alt-coin choices.
Sure, Bitcoin is the best known and most widely used ... but it's also so valuable because it takes such a massive amount of processor power to mine it. Everyone seriously attempting it is buying $8,000+ dedicated mining machines with special ASICs in them that can do nothing BUT run the algorithm to mine the coins.
A coin like "Primecoin" (also abbreviated "xpm") is designed to be mined with a standard CPU as opposed to video card GPUs or dedicated ASICs -- so it would seem much more suitable a choice. Might not be worth a lot, but if you have millions of iOS devices working together to mine it, you'd at least make something.
Yo, Joe, You're funny.
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You are trying to make a point using gnomes as the base. That's a reach.
This is an excellent idea for the devs who's sole purpose is to sell out to make money instead of producing entertaining or useful apps. Most smartphone users (aka dumb people) will never notice this is even happening and will attribute decreased battery life to a crappy charger.
Money rules all, and Apple will allow this so long as they get their cut.
Money rules all, and Apple will allow this so long as they get their cut.
Okay, I've Googled, read posts in this thread, Wikipedia, and all... I still don't understand how the **** bitcoin works. I feel like an idiot.
I sure hope it's not something that I eventually NEED to learn and understand, because it sounds like a headache. And this comes from someone who loves math and science.
I feel like an idiot.I sure hope it's not something that I eventually NEED to learn and understand, because it sounds like a headache. And this comes from someone who loves math and science.
I honestly haven't read this article (yet), but based on the author who I'm familiar with, I expect it to be a pretty good introduction to Bitcoin:Okay, I've Googled, read posts in this thread, Wikipedia, and all... I still don't understand how the **** bitcoin works.
http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/bitcoin-for-beginners#axzz2jbI2kZUo
Except that Apple won't get a cut at all and will be blamed for poor iOS device performance. This is exactly the kind of thing that Apple runs its walled garden to screen for. Malicious software that can damage the user's experice (a.k.a. Apple's reputation).
Sneaking BitCoin generation software into an application without notice to the user has and will continue to open such companies to lawsuits (already established) covering damage to the users hardware.
I feel sad for all the Android users out there who are going to get flooded with this stuff, and the for the ones that will keep running in the background as full on malware.
I'm curious how you plan to identify apps that use this plugin.
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If the app isn't entertaining or useful, people will stop using it, and the developer won't make any money. This would actually require the developer to make something extremely useful. They need the app open in order to produce bitcoins. Alternatively, they could release a crappy application for $0.99 and not worry about customers who never use the software.
They won't actually be making their cut because the bitcoins are sent directly to the developer. It completely cuts Apple out of the pricing model. If they have a way to identify this, they will prevent these apps from getting to market.
At the same time, every "bitcoin" produced wastes tons of electricity. Criminal destruction of natural resources. There should be a stupidity tax on bitcoins. I suggest 200% of any payment received.
Well, it's not counterfeiting. What they are doing is actually _creating_ new bitcoins. The thing that is detestable is that the amount of electric power used to create a single bitcoin is hugely more than the actual "value" of the bitcoin. And in the case of an iPhone, the amount of wear and tear on the iPhone is much bigger than the cost of electricity. (Consider how much electricity an iPhone will use through its life time. It's much less than the cost of the iPhone. Creating a single bitcoin is estimated about $8000 in electricity.
