Taking control of your browser for cryptocurrency mining has a slightly negative connotation, but UNICEF Australia seems to have done it without any fear.
The charity organization has launched something called The HopePage, which allows people to make a donation by keeping the web page open and using the computer’s CPU to extract digital currencies. Tap on an application by Coinhive, which extracts Monero.
Every time you visit the page, you will have to confirm and select the processing power (between 20 and 80%) that you want to give up.
“We wanted to leverage new emerging technologies to raise awareness about the ongoing humanitarian crisis and raise money to support the children involved in them,” Jennifer Tierney, director of fundraising and communications at UNICEF in Australia, said in a statement.
“HopePage allows Australians to provide help and hope to vulnerable children by simply opening the page while they’re online.”
When on The Hopepage, an individual’s browser uses the computer’s processor to solve cryptocurrency algorithms: users can select the amount of processor power they wish to donate to the activity.
The longer the browser is open, the more processor power is donated, which means that more algorithms are resolved, gaining cryptocurrency.
Cryptocurrency mining to finance legitimate causes is certainly not new. In February, UNICEF asked users to install Claymore mining software to help children affected by the Syrian civil war.
The mined cryptocurrency is then automatically donated to Unicef Australia and is transformed into real funds that the organization said to reach children through supplies such as drinking water, therapeutic food and vaccines.
Commercially, online media outlet Salon has tested in-browser mining, also using Coinhive, but as a way to create revenue outside of advertisements.
This effort came with a lot of negative aspects, with critics who said the effort as wasteful.
Cryptocurrency mining is an intensive use of energy and the functioning of your computer’s CPU is more intense, also weighing heavily on the system. Of course, you can decide how much computing power is using HopePage.
“If you’re always worried about energy consumption, lower the amount of processing power you’re giving,” explains the site’s instructions.
If you think that all of this is too worrying, maybe it’s better if you donate money in a classic way.
UNICEF is a global humanitarian and development agency focused on children’s rights. Although it is the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF is not funded by the UN; rather, it provides assistance from voluntary donations.
According to Unicef, The Hopepage is currently supporting the organization’s response to the Rohingya crisis. He said that all funds raised through The Hopepage will help provide supplies to Rohingya children who have fled their homes in Myanmar and now live in refugee camps in Bangladesh.
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