SourceHut 宣佈拒絕 cryptocurrency 與 blockchain 相關的專案

SourceHut 是個 GitMercurial 的 hosting service,以及提供一些專案管理常見的功能。

他們宣佈不再提供 cryptocurrency 以及 blockchain 相關專案的服務,自 2023 年生效:「SourceHut terms of service updates, cryptocurrency-related projects to be removed」。

SourceHut is planning to roll out updates to our terms of service, effective in 2023. The changes most likely to impact users is the prohibition of cryptocurrency- or blockchain-related projects on SourceHut.

因為這些技術幾乎都是用在違法用途上:

These domains are strongly associated with fraudulent activities and high-risk investments which take advantage of people who are suffering from economic hardship and growing global wealth inequality. Few to no legitimate use-cases for this technology have been found; instead it is mostly used for fraudulent “get rich quick” schemes and to facilitate criminal activity, such as ransomware, illicit trade, and sanctions evasion. These projects often encourage large-scale energy waste and electronics waste, which contributes to the declining health of Earth’s environment. The presence of these projects on SourceHut exposes new victims to these scams and is harmful to the reputation of SourceHut and its community.

不過這年頭自己架 GitLab 也不是什麼難事,該有的功能都有,這個只能算是個宣言...

挖 Ethereum 加熱房間...

大家都好像有過類似的想法,只是實際去做的不多 XDDD

有人把整個作法寫出來,挖 Ethereum 加熱房間:「How I heat my home by mining crypto currencies」。

從網站上的「About me」這邊看起來應該是住在奧地利?

I am a tech geek from Austin TX (USA), living on the country side in Austria and devote most of my time to my girlfriend, my company, my students and different projects.

不確定是哪個城市,先抓了首都維也納的溫度來看,看起來一到三月的平均氣溫都在個位數 (攝氏),可以理解暖氣應該是常備物品:

作者之前就先搞過一個可以一路接到 Grafana 的電錶,然後也有裝太陽能電板,但因為暖氣用電的關係而不夠用:

After building my own smart meter using 4$ in parts I started checking my electricity usage every day, which made me realize how expensive it is to heat your home. Especially since all heat and warm water in my low-energy house is made with electricity. I do have 4.8 kwp solar panels on my roof but in winter they don't cover too much for obvious reasons.

順便查了一下電價,在「Austria electricity prices」這頁可以看到奧地利的每一度要 USD$0.248:

而同一份資料上,台灣是 USD$0.101:

回到他的暖氣機,他是屬於中央空調大台機器的類型:

這種機器會恆溫輸出,所以是進風溫度愈低,就需要使用愈高的電能加熱。所以他想到的解法就是針對進風口預先用顯卡挖礦加熱 (四張 AMD 的 R9 390),這樣就可以降低暖氣機的電力消耗 (不過整體的消耗會提昇):

I had 4 older AMD R9 390 GPUs laying around (for the nVidia crowd that's basically on a level with a GTX 970) and I thought it could work.

後面就是改裝過程了,最後的結果雖然整體的電力使用量上升,但因為暖氣機的電力消耗降低,加上礦機挖到的 ETH 直接 cover 暖氣機的費用,反而讓暖氣機變免費了:

Success! I was able to lower my heat pump's electricity needs by ~50% and half of the costs are also paid for by the mining earnings

台灣的氣溫應該是用不太到 XDDD

PayPal 也要提供加密貨幣服務

先是看到「PayPal to allow cryptocurrency buying, selling and shopping on its network」這篇,另外翻到了 PayPal 的新聞稿:「PayPal Launches New Service Enabling Users to Buy, Hold and Sell Cryptocurrency」。

幾個比較重要的地方是,這次會提供的是 BitcoinEthereumBitcoin Cash 以及 Litecoin 這四種:

To increase consumer understanding and adoption of cryptocurrency, the company is introducing the ability to buy, hold and sell select cryptocurrencies, initially featuring Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, directly within the PayPal digital wallet.

會先提供美國 PayPal 的使用者使用,然後再展到其他服務以及地區:

The service will be available to PayPal accountholders in the U.S. in the coming weeks. The company plans to expand the features to Venmo and select international markets in the first half of 2021.

另外這次的服務也不是自己跳進去搞,而是透過 Paxos Trust Company 建立起防火牆,所以當加密貨幣那邊出包的時候大概就會切割出來:

The service is enabled in the U.S. through a partnership with Paxos Trust Company, a regulated provider of cryptocurrency products and services.

比較像是個嘗試,只是這個主題很適合發新聞稿...

Stripe 也宣佈要停止支援 Bitcoin 了

Stripe 發了公告出來,要停止支援 Bitcoin:「Ending Bitcoin Support」。預定保留三個月的緩衝期,在 2018 年 4 月 23 日停掉:

Over the next three months we will work with affected Stripe users to ensure a smooth transition before we stop processing Bitcoin transactions on April 23, 2018.

跟其他單位停用的原因都差不多,愈來愈慢的交易速度與愈來愈高的手續費:

Transaction confirmation times have risen substantially; this, in turn, has led to an increase in the failure rate of transactions denominated in fiat currencies. (By the time the transaction is confirmed, fluctuations in Bitcoin price mean that it’s for the “wrong” amount.) Furthermore, fees have risen a great deal. For a regular Bitcoin transaction, a fee of tens of U.S. dollars is common, making Bitcoin transactions about as expensive as bank wires.

Steam 當時的理由很類似... (參考「Steam 停止使用 Bitcoin 購買遊戲」)

利用 pop 視窗藏起來的挖礦腳本

即使把主頁面關掉後,會因為藏起來的 popup window 而繼續挖礦:「Websites use your CPU to mine cryptocurrency even when you close your browser」,原文的 GIF 圖片就可以看出來怎麼做的了:

我是因為用了 One Window 可以避免有 pop window 產生 (都會被這個 extension 轉成 tab),另外用像是 hoshsadiq/adblock-nocoin-list 的 block ruleset 也不錯...

HTTP Archive 研究挖礦網頁的現狀

HTTP Archive 出來研究這個主題感覺就很適合:「The Performance Impact of Cryptocurrency Mining on the Web」。

不過作者是用 script name 去分析,應該還是會有一些漏網,不過可以看出一些數據了...

Cloudflare 對 Coinhive 挖礦的態度

TorrentFreak 的標題不夠精確,不過大概可以看出 Cloudflare 的想法:「Cloudflare Bans Sites For Using Cryptocurrency Miners」。

在沒有告知使用者,以及沒有提供選項關閉的情況下,Cloudflare 認定這是 Malware...