How to Monetize Your Website Using Reader's CPU Power to Mine Monero

 I have always looked forward to some sought of cryptocurrency micro-payment for blogging, where there won’t be need to show adverts, pop-ups, banners e.t.c However, there seem to be challenges when it comes to start-up publishers.

All this is about to change as a new service called CoinHive is making it easy for you to monetize your website using readers CPU power to mine Monero as they browse through your articles and get paid in Monero.

CoinHive offers 3 types of monetization features.

1. Proof of Work Captcha

The Proof of Work Captcha works in the same way like the normal captcha service, however with the Proof of Work captcha, users need to solve a number of hashes (adjustable by you) in order to submit a form. This prevents spam at an inconvenience that is comparable to a classic captcha. All with the added benefit of earning you some Monero.

2. Proof of Work Shortlinks

If you have an URL you'd like to forward your users to, you can create a cnhv.co shortlink to it. The user has to solve a number of hashes (adjustable by you) and is automatically forwarded to the target URL afterwards.

Example: https://cnhv.co/9mm (this just forwards to the Monero article on Wikipedia)

3. Flexible JavaScript Functions

The JavaScript API lets you tie solved hashes to user accounts on your site, giving you the freedom to offer your users arbitrary incentives to solve hashes for you.

Start the mining process by loading the CoinHive library and using "miner.start();" to call the start function:

<script src="https://coin-hive.com/lib/coinhive.min.js"></script>
<script>
 var miner = new CoinHive.User('<site-key>', 'john-doe');
 miner.start();
</script>

Or check balance by calling this function:

curl "https://api.coin-hive.com/user/balance?name=john-doe&secret=<secret-key>" # {success: true, name: "john-doe" balance: 4096}

Use Cases:

For example, A website can make you mine Monero each time you read a story, and can let it stop 60seconds later or 5minutes later. Or they can even make you mine Monero at random interval as you browse through the website.

This might even be used in games and apps to replace advertisements. CoinHive takes 30% share of total mining and pay out 70% to your Monero wallet. Though, the money earned compared to ads might be less. But who knows, Monero price could go up and lead to something really interesting in terms of profit.