In this edition of The Daily, the creator of the in-browser crypto mining software Coinhive is closing down due to the low prices of monero and its forks. Also, $7.7 million of Eos has been stolen by a hacker and the crypto entrepreneur behind the money-throwing stunt in Hong Kong last year has been arrested for fraud.
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Coinhive Discontinues Monero Miner
Coinhive, the creator of the in-browser cryptocurrency miner that has become instrumental in numerous cryptojacking campaigns, as well as in many funding projects with noble causes, is closing down. Its team explained that due to the current price of monero, the main cryptocurrency the software mints, as well as the drop in its hash rate after the last fork, mining is not economically viable anymore.
The service will be terminated on March 8, according to a blog post published on Coinhive’s website. “The drop in hash rate (over 50%) after the last Monero hard fork hit us hard. So did the ‘crash’ of the cryptocurrency market with the value of XMR depreciating over 85% within a year,” the statement details. Its authors point out that the next hard fork and algorithm update of the Monero network, scheduled for March 9, has also contributed to their decision to discontinue Coinhive.
Mining will not be operable anymore after March 8, 2019, Coinhive noted. User dashboards will be accessible until April 30, 2019. This will allow them to initiate their payouts in case their balances are above the minimum payout threshold. “It has been a blast working on this project over the past 18 months… Thank you all for the great time we had together,” the developers added.
