Cryptojacking-Associated Mining Service 'Coinhive' Shuts Down

Controversial cryptocurrency mining service Coinhive will be shutting down its operations on March 8 due to financial inviability, a blog post from the company announced on February 26.

The decision reportedly came as the result of the more than 50 percent drop in Monero's Hash Rate Hash Rate A hash rate is the measure of a cryptocurrency miner’s performance and a key security metric. In the context of mining, the more hashing or computing power in a given network, the greater its security and its overall resistance to attackMining hashrate is a key security metric. The more hashing (computing) power in the network, the greater its security and its overall resistance to attack. Hash rate is also a measurement of the output of a device that is used to add transactions to a blockchain A hash rate is the measure of a cryptocurrency miner’s performance and a key security metric. In the context of mining, the more hashing or computing power in a given network, the greater its security and its overall resistance to attackMining hashrate is a key security metric. The more hashing (computing) power in the network, the greater its security and its overall resistance to attack. Hash rate is also a measurement of the output of a device that is used to add transactions to a blockchain Read this Term following the cryptocurrency’s last hard Fork Fork A fork can occur when a blockchain diverges into two potential paths forward, there is a change in protocol, or a scenario occurs in which two or more blocks have the same block height.Because blockchain networks are decentralized, the participants on the network must come to an agreement when it comes to things like software upgrades to a network. This is called consensus.When consensus cannot be achieved on a software upgrade, a fork occurs, effectively representing a divergence in software th A fork can occur when a blockchain diverges into two potential paths forward, there is a change in protocol, or a scenario occurs in which two or more blocks have the same block height.Because blockchain networks are decentralized, the participants on the network must come to an agreement when it comes to things like software upgrades to a network. This is called consensus.When consensus cannot be achieved on a software upgrade, a fork occurs, effectively representing a divergence in software th Read this Term (a kind of software update that results in the creation of a new cryptocurrency.)

Coinhive also mentioned that the fact that the price of Monero has dropped over 85 percent over the last year has had a crippling effect on the service’s business model.

“[These two factors] and the announced hard fork and algorithm update of the Monero network on March 9 has lead us to the conclusion that we need to discontinue Coinhive,” the blog post explained. “... It has been a blast working on this project over the past 18 months, but to be completely honest, it isn’t economically viable anymore.”

Coinhive's Controversy

The controversy surrounding Coinhive largely began last March when cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs posted an extensive analysis on Coinhive in his blog, Krebs on Security. Coinhive’s mining service is a JavaScript-based operation that can be installed on a website. In the expose, Krebs pointed out that Coinhive was being widely used “on hacked Web sites to steal the processing power of its visitors’ devices.”

Cryptocurrency mining service Coinhive, which was hounded by abuse of its service on hacked Web sites, pulls the plug. A look back at the events that preceded its demise: https://t.co/B72GVqMmY8 pic.twitter.com/Aovoap7UE0

— briankrebs (@briankrebs) February 27, 2019

Therefore, although Coinhive is not a piece of malware in and of itself, it was the tool of choice for a number of hackers who used it for “crytpojacking”--unsuspecting visitors of a hacked website would unknowingly have their computing power hijacked to start mining crypto, which would then be sent into the hacker’s wallet.

Making a case for JavaScript, in-browser Mining - https://t.co/LUhieuhpOe

— Coinhive (@coinhive_com) February 16, 2018

Coinhive’s presence has also been detected in a number of applications. In February 2018, Microsoft remove eight Windows 10 applications from its app store following the discovery of XMR-mining code within them. Symantec, the company that discovered the code, identified it as Coinhive’s.

The controversy surrounding Coinhive was not mentioned as a damaging factor in the company’s decision to shut down.