Bitcoin mining.

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A look inside America's largest Bitcoin mining operation|1:38

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Block and Blockchain.
The Bitcoin protocol is built on blockchain which is a growing list of records called blocks. When you initiate a transaction miners pick your transaction along with several other transactions that has been broadcasted to the network. They then enclose the list of transactions in a block, verifies them and then add it to the Bitcoin blockchain. In Bitcoin network roughly every 10 minutes a new block is created and each block contains a set of most recent transactions. It not only contains transaction information but a block also contains information specific to the blockchain such as: version, block id, hash of the previous block etc.
Now coming to transaction validation: In Bitcoin there are certain transaction validation rules set which ensures that the coins are not spent already, verifies the transaction size, syntax etc. Once the miner finds the transaction to be valid they then add it to a block but not yet allowed to submit the block to the network.
Now before broadcasting a block to the network miners need to solve a cryptographic equation. They are required to provide a Proof of Work solution. We won't be covering the technical details such as nonce, hash function, SHA-256 etc which are all involved in the Bitcoin mining process. Anyways the following outline should give you a basic understanding.
Proof of Work solution.
Now Proof of Work is a highly resource intensive task which requires a lots of computing power. Only those with enormous and efficient computational power will be able to solve the puzzle first. Once the miner finds the solution, their block will be validated by other miners and finally it gets added to the network. Once the block gets accepted by the network miners compete against each other to produce the next block on the blockchain.
Since this system is decentralized anybody can participate in the validation of the transaction. However do note that mining is a highly intensive task. One needs a lots of electric and computational power in order to solve the mathematical problem. Since it requires lots of resource; to compensate the miners the winning miner will receive reward in the form of Bitcoins. These rewards are actually new coins which are being distributed to the network. The reward includes the transaction fees of all the transactions + the block reward which is a pre-determined amount of Bitcoins.
An incentive structure like this motivates miners to constantly validate the Bitcoin transactions on the network. Not only that but as more and more miners join the party, the difficulty rises which in turn keeps the network secure and ensures the blockchain is immutable. Hope it explains! Now here are some of the common questions related to Block rewards.
What does Block Reward mean?
In Bitcoin the Block Reward refers to the amount of new Bitcoins distributed by the network to the miners who solve each blocks. Block rewards are the only way how new Bitcoins are created on the network. It operates both as an incentive mechanism as well as inflation mechanism. So how much is the block reward and who sets these rules?
How are the block rewards determined?
Not only block reward, but the total coin supply, the reward halving structure is all already coded in the software and is set by the creator of the Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. However Satoshi does not control Bitcoin. Bitcoin is an open source application meaning the software is free, publicly available and anyone can contribute to the code. However none of the rules which are set can be changed without the consensus of the entire network.
Initially the block reward of Bitcoin network was 50 BTC. However this is not constant. The block reward structure in Bitcoin is designed in such a way that it halves every 210,000 blocks. Since the block time of Bitcoin is 10 Minute; roughly every 4 years the block reward halving occurs. Started in 2009 the first halving occurred in November 2013 which lowered the block reward from 50 BTC to 25 BTC. Currently (as of March 2019) the block reward of Bitcoin is 12.5 BTC. Every time a miner finds a new block they will receive a reward of 12.5 BTC (excluding transaction fees). So why diminish the block rewards?

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Inside a Crypto-Mining Operation - Computerphile|6:46

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As you probably know the total supply of Bitcoin is capped at 21 Million. Meaning there will be no more new coins created on the network after the max supply is reached. Now imagine what happens if there is no Bitcoin reward halving. If the block reward was fixed at 50 BTC then by this time all the 21 million coins would have mined. This diminishing block reward is designed to create a self sustaining network where the miners will be constantly rewarded for securing the network.
Coins have to get initially distributed somehow, and a constant rate seems like the best formula - Satoshi Nakamoto.
So how will the miners secure the network in the long run if the block reward keeps decreasing?
What happens to network if block reward goes to zero?
This is one of the common question most beginners ask. The block reward is the only main incentive for miners. How will they conduct the network if they don't receive any reward? Will the miners keep mining? According to the Bitcoin Whitepaper; after 64 halving events the block reward finally becomes zero. However there is something called transaction fees which you must take note.
Currently the amount that miners claim as a reward for creating a new block is the sum of block reward plus the transactions fees.
To send a transaction on the Bitcoin network; users have to pay a fee. This transaction fees is currently negligible. However in future as the network grows and gets widely accepted it is believed that the transaction fees should be more than enough to compensate the miners.
Once a predetermined number of coins have entered circulation, the incentive can transition entirely to transaction fees and be completely inflation free - Satoshi Nakamoto.
A Record Is Made With Bitcoin mining.
According to the data shared by an analysis site on November 18, it was announced that there was a significant increase in the revenues generated by Bitcoin (BTC) mining. Accordingly, mining revenues have returned to pre-halving levels.
Bitcoin has officially taken over the agenda with its recent rise. The leading cryptocurrency, which continues to keep investors happy, also seems to make miners happy. Data recently shared by analysis site Glassnode shows that revenues from Bitcoin mining are returning to pre-halving levels.
Bitcoin mining rewards halved from 12.5 BTC.
In every halving period, there is a "halving" in the revenues generated by Bitcoin mining. Since a limited number of Bitcoins (21 million) must be produced, the closer to the limit, the harder it is to produce Bitcoins. Bitcoin mining revenues dropped by half were supposed to be against miners in theory. However, the recent peak run of the Bitcoin price brought the value of mining rewards to pre-May levels, which had recently dropped with the halving in May.
Bitcoin was trading at $ 9,000 during the mid-May halving. The mining rewards determined before the halving were 12.5 BTC. The value of the prizes falling to 6.25 BTC after the halving has returned to its levels in mid-May due to the Bitcoin price, which started trading at $ 18,000. While Glassnode shared this data on Twitter, the website Blockchain.com, which tracks the block awards, confirmed this.
Mining revenues were very low at some point this year, following the collapse in the cryptocurrency market caused by the epidemic. However, according to recent data, daily revenue, including block rewards and transaction fees, saw the year high on November 18 with $ 21.2 million. This amount most recently reached its peak on May 6, with $ 20.6 million. It will not be a surprise that the amount will increase even more in proportion to the increase in the bitcoin price.
Bitcoin mining: Risks and Rewards for Entrepreneurs.
Blockchain technology is already starting to have a major impact on the business world, creating entirely new industries . Bitcoin mining is quite possibly the most interesting and profitable of these new opportunities. Whether you're an entrepreneur on a budget or have a large supply of capital to spend on a mining operation, here are some important things to consider before starting a mining operation and how you can benefit from a successful mining operation.
Things to Consider Before Starting.
Legal Risks.
One of the first steps to consider is whether or not Bitcoin mining is legal where you live . In some countries, Bitcoin mining operations have been shut down entirely. Before you formulate a strategy, you should get a better understanding of some of the legal risks and the regulatory outlooks of starting a mining operation in your country.
Hardware Investment.
Another important factor to consider is the barrier to entry for mining. Keep in mind that choosing between CPUs, GPUs, or ASICs isn't only based on how much money you have to spend but is often dictated by what types of mining are allowed by the projects themselves. For instance, BTC allows for ASIC hardware, but BCG does not. More cryptocurrencies are beginning to utilize ASIC-resistant algorithms. These new hashing algorithms take away the advantages of ASICs and make GPUs a more economical choice. This can be a good thing for entry-level miners who don't want to invest $1,000 USD to buy mining equipment. However, it also makes it more difficult for entrepreneurs with a lot of money to be able to mine at scale.
Picking the Best Mineable Cryptos.
Consensus Algorithm Trends.
One of the biggest things to consider is what consensus algorithm of the cryptocurrency you are interested in mining plans to use in the future. Of course, if a project is currently using Proof-of-Stake , its cryptocurrency is non-mineable. Also, more Proof-of-Work projects are moving towards PoS or hybrid consensus algorithms. It's important to make sure that you are aware of these changes. Just because a given crypto is currently mineable doesn't mean that it will remain that way forever.
Value vs. Risk.
An important question to ask when choosing to invest in any business is how the efforts and capital invested today will lead to long-term benefits in the future? For example, it might not necessarily be a good idea to mine a cryptocurrency you think might be overvalued. However, this could still be a better option than mining a cryptocurrency that's undervalued. This is because sometimes other factors like increasing difficulty and decreasing block reward could mean that costs (i.e. buying hardware and paying energy bills) spent mining some cryptocurrencies can actually lead to a net operating loss.
Monetary Supply.
Supply of a given currency might be the most important determining factor when looking at which cryptocurrency to mine. Whether new cryptocurrency projects should have a large or small token supply is a hotly debated topic. Nevertheless, one statistic that some newer miners might forget to examine closely is circulating supply vs. maximum supply.
Some major projects like Ethereum and Monero don't have a maximum supply. As a result, even successful mining operations might not necessarily reach the expected value of miners due to increasing availability. On the other hand, some cryptos that have a maximum supply that might not be able to match normal inflation demand. In both extreme scenarios, mining such cryptocurrencies as part of a long-term portfolio building strategy could be risky.

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How to Mine Bitcoin on PC in 2020 - Beginners Quick Start Guide - Overclocking Basics|43:28

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Benefits.
HODL or Trade.
One of the biggest benefits of mining crypto over buying it is the fact that a miner can, for lack of a better term, create money that didn't exist before. This makes deciding what to do with mined coins somewhat less of an emotional decision than deciding what to do with bought coins. However, because prices have historically been very volatile, Bitcoin mining can often be a double-edged sword. In some instances, it might be a good idea to trade a mined cryptocurrency for another cryptocurrency or for fiat currency. In other instances, it might be best to HODL a mined cryptocurrency and wait to see if it gains value over time.
It's possible to do some technical analysis and read up on the expected short-term vs. long-term gains of a given token. But there are many unforeseeable market factors that go into determining price value. In most cases, making the best decision (HODL or trade) isn't all that obvious. It can require a bit of subjectivity on the part of the miner.
More Scalable Than Buying.
Another benefit of mining over buying cryptocurrency is ongoing costs. Mining requires more costs upfront (buying mining equipment) and less costs later on (high exchange fees). If done correctly, mining can be a much cheaper, scalable solution than buying crypto. Miners also say that mining is an overall lower risk than buying . This is because buying a cryptocurrency which eventually loses its value means that an investor loses money. In contrast, even if a mined cryptocurrency turns out to have zero value in the long-run, at least there will still be value in the mining hardware equipment. In the worst-case scenario, it's possible to sell or re-purpose mining equipment. So, miners still have something of value.
Bitcoin mining can be a good way for entrepreneurs interested in cryptocurrency to earn profits. There are a few hurdles and important factors to consider when choosing the best cryptos to mine. However, if done correctly, it's possible to create a successful cryptocurrency mining business.
Elusive Crypto Mining Botnet "Lemon Duck" Sees Alarming Growth.
Last Updated: 15 October 2020.
At the end of August, cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new crypto mining botnet dramatically increasing its activity, going by the name of "Lemon Duck."
Blasting Into new Prominence.
The botnet itself has been in the field since December of 2018, but it has seen a massive jump in activity within these past six weeks. This, in turn, suggests that far more machines had been infiltrated by the malware to allow it to mine the Monero cryptocurrency with greater resources.
Cisco's Talos Intelligence Group had conducted research, which suggests that many end users have likely not detected the infections by Lemon Duck. Even so, power defenders, such as network administrators, are likely to have picked it up.
Windows 10 Is Its Favourite Target.
Crypto mining malware runs the risk of actually physically damaging the hardware it infected. This is due to how it leaches resources by running the GPU and/or CPU in a constant fashion to allow for the mining process to work. Through doing so, the power consumption and heat generation will be dramatically increased, and might even lead to a fire in extreme cases.
The malware itself targets Windows 10 systems, exploiting various vulnerabilities across a number of Microsoft system services. The malware itself has seen itself spread by way of emails, theming itself with COVID-19 content, and attaching an infected file to the email. This botnet self-perpetuates, as well, as it leverages Outlook, a Windows emailing service, in order to send itself to every contact the infected system has, thus spreading the virus.
Some Details Regarding The Attack Itself.
The malicious emails themselves hold two malicious files within: The first is an RTF document named readme.doc. This document exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft Office for remote code execution. The second file, readme.zip, contains a script that downloads and runs Lemon Duck Loader.
After installation, the software automatically terminates an array of Windows services, proceeding to download various other tools for stealth connections across the network. While Windows systems are the primary victims of Lemon ducks, Linux infections do occur, just relatively rarer.
After the malware has established itself, it mines the Monero privacy-focused cryptocurrency. This is due to how its anonymous design and easy obfuscation makes itself a perfect illegal mining coin. The researchers themselves have yet to say what entity is behind Lemon Duck, either through ignorance or through discretion. They did, however, link it to the "Beapy" crypto-mining malware, which targeted East Asia back in June of 2019.
What Is Botnet Mining?
Cryptocurrency mining botnets are making millions for their creators by secretly infecting various devices across the globe.
Early this February, more than half a million computing devices were hijacked by a cryptocurrency miner botnet called Smominru, forcing the various devices to mine nearly 9,000 Monero cryptocoins without the knowledge of the devices' owners, according to technology portal ZDNet.
Welcome to the malicious world of botnets - a collection of various internet-connected computing devices, which may include desktops, servers, handheld mobile devices, and devices compatible with Internet of Things (IoT), that are purposefully infected and controlled by a common type of malware. The working mechanism of such botnets ensures that the device owners mostly remain unaware that a botnet infected and now controls their system.
The system allows the creators to rake in cryptocash at the expense of the ignorant device owners who don't have any idea that their machines are being used to produce cryptocoins.
How do Botnets Work?
A botnet system is akin to standard computer malware. Computer malware is like any other computer program, but it is designed to use a computer for nefarious activities like corrupting the system, destroying and/or stealing data, or using it for illegal activities which have a detrimental effect on the device, data, and the network. Unless caught by anti-virus/anti-malware programs installed on the device, such malware continues to run without the owner's knowledge and is capable of replicating itself to the other connected devices on the network.
Similarly, botnets are automated programs developed as lines of code by their creators and are made to sneak on to a user's computing device. Botnets use the machine's processing power, electricity, and the Internet bandwidth, to mine a particular cryptocurrency. (For more, see How Does Bitcoin mining Work?)
The botnets are usually released on a private network of interconnected computers so that the cumulative power of the various devices can result in more computational power for mining cryptocurrency, thereby boosting mining output and the corresponding rewards for the botnet creators.

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Put Your Gaming PC to Work, Easy Cryptomining Tutorial-NiceHash Setup|14:59

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Smominru Miner Botnet Case Study.
The Smominru miner botnet that was created around May 2017 had successfully mined around 9,000 Monero tokens worth around $3.6 million by February 2018. Researchers at cybersecurity company Proofpoint claim that the botnet includes "more than 526,000 infected Windows hosts, most of which we believe are servers."
Due to its resilient nature and ability to keep regenerating itself, it has been a difficult task to contain its spread despite all the efforts to take it down. Geographically, the nodes of the Smominru miner botnet are observed to be distributed across the globe, and the bulk of them are found in , India and Taiwan.
After its investigations and analysis, Proofpoint requested that a prominent Monero mining pool, MineXMR, ban the address linked to Smominru. Though this resulted in the operators apparently losing control over one-third of the botnet, they quickly registered new domains and started mining to a new address on the same pool.
Monero seems to be the hot favorite cryptocurrency to be mined through such botnets, owing to its anonymity and privacy-rich features which make it difficult to track the destination address to which the mined tokens are transferred. (For more, see What Is Monero (XMR) Cryptocurrency?)
Bigger Rewards for Less Work?
The methods of mining various cryptocurrencies are becoming more and more complicated and resource intensive with each passing day. Instead of focusing on the hard, yet honest road to benefit from cryptocurrency mining rewards, the operators of such botnets flourish by abusing all available modes to expand their botnet across more and more devices, and concentrate their efforts and energies on developing such pre-programmed systems. Additionally, they continue to devise multiple ways to make the botnet more robust.
Given the significant profit promised by such botnets, their number and ill-effects are expected to grow.
"Taking down the botnet is very difficult given its distributed nature and the persistence of its operators. For businesses, preventing infection through robust patching regimens and layered security is the best protection from potentially disruptive impacts on critical infrastructure," ProofPoint's VP of Threat Operations, Kevin Epstein, told News.com.au.
In June 2017, another similar exploit named DoublePulsar was used to install Monero mining malware on various devices. In late January 2018, the security firm TrendMicro reported that Alphabet Inc's Google's (GOOGL) DoubleClick ad services were used to distribute cryptocurrency mining malware to a number of users in Europe and Asia.
While the cryptocurrency infrastructure is still evolving, such threats loom large over nascent networks. Though it may be difficult to contain the menace at the individual user level, regular monitoring of the various processes running on individual devices may help. (See also, Bitcoin Price Drops After "WannaCry" Ransomware Taint.)
Investing in cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings ("ICOs") is highly risky and speculative, and this article is not a recommendation by Investopedia or the writer to invest in cryptocurrencies or ICOs. Since each individual's situation is unique, a qualified professional should always be consulted before making any financial decisions. Investopedia makes no representations or warranties as to the accuracy or timeliness of the information contained herein. As of the date this article was written, the author owns no cryptocurrencies.
Top 3 Crypto Mining Botnets: Smominru, DDG, and ADB.Miner.
Botnets have facilitated different types of cybercrime for years. This concept designates a multitude of Internet-connected devices, including personal computers, servers, mobile gadgets and IoT objects, controlled by threat actors beyond users' awareness.
Malicious code injected into 'zombie' machines allows crooks to gain a foothold on these hosts and invoke certain commands remotely at any time. The most common use cases revolve around DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks and massive spam campaigns.
However, things are starting to change.
The ongoing cryptocurrency boom has incentivized botnet operators to repurpose their networks of enslaved machines. They have apparently realized that the aggregate processing power of their botnets is a godsend when it comes to mining digital coins. Consequently, this segment of cybercrime is shifting toward a paradigm where botnets do not DDoS or spam - they mine cryptocurrencies.
Interestingly, Bitcoin is no more the number one coin among cybercriminals. It is slow and requires high transaction fees. Monero has become very popular for its easy mining, and Dash is the best coin for ransomware authors.
Here are the top 3 crypto mining botnets:
1) Smominru, the Biggest Mining Botnet to Date.
Also referred to as MyKings, Smominru is a gigantic Monero-mining botnet consisting of at least 520,000 'zombie' devices. It targets computers and servers running Windows operating system. This well-orchestrated campaign took root in late May 2017 and has since grown massive due to sophisticated payload delivery mechanisms.
Smominru operators reportedly utilize two exploits, EternalBlue and EsteemAudit, to contaminate machines on a large scale. The former is part of the notorious NSA surveillance toolkit leaked by The Shadow Brokers hacking group last year. The latter is a notorious Windows remote desktop exploit. Both allow for malware injection beyond user involvement.
Most of the infected nodes are located in Taiwan, India, Brazil, e, and . The perpetrators have taken advantage of the hefty army of plagued machines to mine a whopping 8,900 Monero, which is worth more than $2.5 million at the time of this writing. According to security analysts, the unscrupulous proprietors of the Smominru botnet are most likely based in China.
2) DDG Botnet Targeting Servers.
A botnet codenamed DDG has mined about $1.5 million worth of Monero by harnessing the processing capacity of more than 4,000 infected OrientDB and Redis database servers.
This one has been active since March 2017. The crooks zero in on servers for a reason - this type of equipment has much more CPU than PCs, which translates to a higher mining power.
The vectors of compromise include credentials brute-force attacks in the case of Redis servers and the exploitation of OriendDB remote code execution bug cataloged as CVE-2017-11467. The majority of breached servers (73%) are located in China, with 11% being in the United States and the remaining 16% scattered across other parts of the globe.
The infection chain involves the DDG core function module that, once executed, downloads the miner application called wnTKYg. According to researchers' findings, this botnet's architecture is very flexible as it uses a script named i.sh that allows the felons to download and deploy arbitrary malicious code on compromised servers, not necessarily a miner.
Given the influx of these onslaughts, as Monero price is climbing, the admins of OrientDB databases should patch known vulnerabilities as soon as possible, and the owners of Redis servers are strongly recommended to strengthen their authentication practices so that dictionary attacks end up futile.
3) ADB.Miner, a Threat to Android Devices.
In early February 2018, a new botnet was discovered that stands out from the crowd. Its operators are trying their hand at enslaving Android devices to mine Monero cryptocurrency.
The intended set of victims is rather strange, given the relatively low CPU power they have on board. However, it looks like the crooks are attempting to compensate this by the number of infected nodes, which reached 7,000 over the first couple of days and doubles every 12 hours. Furthermore, the botnet primarily hits smart TVs that are equipped with more powerful processing units than smartphones.
The entry point for the malicious code is port 5555, the one used by the command-line tool called Android Debug Bridge (ADB), hence the name of the botnet. This port is normally disabled by default, so only devices whose users enabled it manually are at risk. Incidentally, the exploitation of open ports resembles the modus operandi of computer worms, so the perpetrating code is a hybrid combining the properties of different malware strains.
Another noteworthy feature of ADB.Miner is that its authors appear to have borrowed the network scanning module and core structure from the notorious Mirai botnet targeting IoT devices.
The majority of victims are located in China (39%) and South Korea (39%). The routine of obtaining XMR tokens involves two mining pools that share the same Monero wallet. As of February 4, this wallet had no coins in it, but that was just the dawn of the campaign.
Cybercriminals follow the money. The use of botnets for outright old-school attacks, even DDoS for ransom, isn't nearly as profitable and effective as surreptitious cryptocurrency mining. Furthermore, botnet-powered spam campaigns and DDoS make a lot of noise and attract too much attention of the law enforcement.

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Cara Mining Mirco Bitcoin Profit 150 ribu Perhari dengan Laptop / PC - Mining Bitcoin 2020|10:24

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Botnets are extremely difficult to take down due to their distributed essence and robust Command and Control infrastructure.
The only viable method to prevent a device from becoming a submissive bot is to implement defenses proactively. The owners of PCs, mobile devices and servers should run regular software updates that include patches for known vulnerabilities and thwart remote code execution. Another important tip is to use strong access credentials that cannot be cracked easily. Also, a reputable security suite is quite likely to detect botnet-related malware and stop the attack in its tracks. Users should additionally look for red flags that may indicate unauthorized mining activity. If a device's CPU usage is constantly at its peak, it's an unambiguous call to action and about time to check the system for malware traces. Another giveaway lies in the very gist of a botnet: it lives as long as there are communications with the Command and Control server. This way, zombie machines get instructions and submit data to the C2. Abnormal inbound and outbound traffic, including concurrent identical DNS requests, is therefore a likely symptom of botnet activity.
Unfortunately, end users who aren't very tech-savvy may fail to notice this going on in the background. A reliable Internet security suite will help identify this type of suspicious traffic along with concomitant malware and stop it in its tracks.
Botnet Infects Half a Million Servers to Mine Thousands of Monero.
Annaliese Milano.
More than half a million machines have been hijacked by a cryptocurrency miner botnet, forcing them to mine nearly 9,000 monero tokens (worth roughly $3.6 million), according to a new report.
The Smominru botnet, which infected more than 526,000 Windows servers at its peak, has been used to mine 8,900 monero tokens since it first started appearing in May 2017, according to ZDNet. The botnet is based on the Windows exploit EternalBlue, which was developed by the U.S. National Security Agency and leaked by the Shadow Brokers hacker group last year. Eternal Blue was subsequently deployed in conjunction with another NSA-developed exploit, DoublePulsar, in the WannaCry attack.
Windows servers have been the botnet's primary victims, which ZDNet notes are ideal hosts because they are always turned on and have more processing capacity than a personal computer. The majority of affected machines are reportedly located in , India and Taiwan, though the attack spans the globe.
Attempts to curtail the botnet have had only short-term success thus far. Cybersecurity workers from Proofpoint, abuse.ch and the ShadowServer Foundation attempted to eradicate the botnet using a technique called "sinkholing," but the Smominru quickly recovered.
As CoinDesk has previously reported, monero has increasingly been implicated with cybercrime, likely because transactions, the coins used in transactions and transaction histories associated with monero are all private.
Last year, the previously mentioned exploit, DoublePulsar, was used to facilitate the secret installation of monero mining malware. Likewise, earlier this week, security firm TrendMicro announced its discovery that miners have been appropriating Google's DoubleClick ad services to distribute malware to mine the cryptocurrency.
Creating a Bitcoin-Mining Botnet at No Cost.
Bitcoins are valuable, in large part because mining for bitcoins takes a lot of resources. At Black Hat a pair of researchers demonstrated that it's possible to gain access to the necessary resources in the cloud without spending a penny.
At the Black Hat 2014 conference in Las Vegas, Rob Ragan and Oscar Salazar, penetration testers from Bishop Fox, demonstrated a technique for cloud-based Bitcoin mining that cost them exactly...nothing. At this moment, one bitcoin is worth $576.57. With a hefty exchange rate like that, Bitcoin mining without the need to devote massive computing resources could be quite lucrative.
It's not precisely a legitimate activity, but then, the job of a penetration tester is to hack systems in order to patch them. Ragan noted that the experiment did "violate the hell out of some terms of service." To gain access to the necessary processing power, they had to generate a huge number of unique email addresses and sign up for tons of free trial accounts. Having done so, they managed to build a fully functional bitcoin-mining botnet. According to Ragan, "This botnet doesn't get flagged as malware, blocked by web filters, or get taken over. This is the stuff of nightmares!"
Digging the Details "We are penetration testers," said Ragan. "We've been working on this project for the last year. We showed that we definitely can build a botnet from freely available cloud services. We asked the question, is insufficient anti-automation an overlooked risk? Should it be considered a top ten vulnerability?"
"These cloud based services do many different things," said Salazar, "but the purpose is to let developers get something up and running immediately." "It cuts out all the legwork and lets you build an application as quickly as possible," added Ragan. "Platform as a service is a commodity that's in high demand. But if it's making the life of a developer easier, wouldn't it also make things easier for a malicious attacker? That's exactly what we explored."
Unlimited Email Addresses We've all had the experience of registering for a website or service and being told the registration would be finalized when we clicked on an email link. Our doughty researchers needed a way to completely automate this process.
The session explained in detail exactly how they managed to create unlimited email accounts with realistic usernames and a wide variety of different domains. The next step was to set up automatic response for those accounts, so that they could respond to any "Click this link to confirm" email. It worked! At this point, they had a system to create unlimited unique emails with no human interaction. And they stored all the details using a free trial of cloud-based MongoDB. Yes, attendees will be able to get all the code that was used in this experiment.
Fun Activities! "At this point we can do things like DDoS, crypto-currency mining, data storage, and more," said Ragan. "As penetration testers, having a distributed botnet under our control was the goal." Having a tame botnet to launch white-hat DDoS tests against willing clients was definitely valuable.
They experimented with just what's possible when you have email addresses for an unlimited number of "friends." Many online storage systems give you additional gigabytes for successfully referring friends. Some cap the total amount you can gain this way, others don't. "We got a terabyte for free on one service," said Ragan, "which is more than you can even pay for."
At its peak, the experimental LiteCoin-mining botnet was generating about 25 cents per day per account. With 1,000 active accounts, that's $250 per day. "We didn't want to be malicious, just to show how it's done," said Ragan, "so we stopped. But we've heard of people making a lot of money in a short time. We did leave a couple accounts running for several weeks, just to see if they'd be detected. They weren't"
Anti-Automation During the course of the experiment, a number of services revised their verification systems to defeat automatic creation of accounts. One even stated the reason was a proliferation of botnets.
Of course, the point of this exercise wasn't to generate ill-gotten gains. Now that it's clear what can be done using trial accounts, it's likely the providers will add more defenses to prevent abuse of their systems. "There are plenty of ways to identify humans without annoying users," said Ragan. He mentioned examples including logic puzzles, validation by credit card, and even live operators. It does seem clear that any cloud servce without significant anti-automation is likely to find itself harboring more botnets than real users.

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Getting Started with Bitcoin mining & Hosting.
Get started with Bitcoin mining with D-Central. We will assist you throughout your stay in this exciting industry!
Understand Bitcoin and how it is produced.
Cryptocurrency is all the rage, Bitcoin and similar currencies seem to be the thing to have and know about. However, most people have no idea where cryptocurrency came from, how it is produced, and its use. Very few people understand its most popular form, Bitcoin. Bitcoin is created by mining, a digital execution that one must do until the program involved produced the random but needed code to generate an additional Bitcoin block. By finding this block, the miners attribute to themselves new bitcoins, which they put into circulation as a reward for providing the necessary calculation to the network. It is this incentive that is now pushing thousands of investors to engage in cryptocurrency mining!
People can obtain Cryptocurrency in one of three ways.
The first is to buy them on a valid Bitcoin exchange or be given Bitcoin via the same channel as a gift. The second method is to receive Bitcoin as a method payment for goods or services, and the third is the actual creation of Bitcoin, mining them. This last method is the technical part, which adds transaction records to the shared ledger that everyone uses, the blockchain. As these transactions add up, they ultimately get included in a block. When that happens, the block then goes into the overall Bitcoin system and gets distributed to other nodes on the network to verify if the block is valid. This process kicks out newly minted bitcoins to the miners involved, which is the reward for computing power miners sacrifices.
Learn the basics of Bitcoin mining.
While Bitcoin mining involves computers and computations, it's not so simple as installing a program on your home computer and getting started anymore. Successful Bitcoin mining has turned into a big business involving lots of players and mining hardware. That said, the individual or small group can mine Bitcoin still, but it takes some work. There are several motivations for mining Bitcoin. The most popular is the ability to mine more bitcoins than by only buying them. This is not always the case, and some generations of equipment never see a positive return on investment. However, our Mine&Hodl case studies show that, historically, when Bitcoin's price appreciates, you mine more bitcoins than the purchase would allow you to. The Mine&Sell strategy remains a way to profit when Bitcoin prices are low, assuming you are using the profit on the bitcoins sold to increase your hashrate with hardware compounding. Finally, there is also speculation that the Bitcoin network will become a high-value form of settlement layer and could generate good mining revenues in the future through increased on-chain fees.
When deciding between miners different models, there are two essential qualities you should keep in mind--Hashrate and power consumption. The hashrate is the number of calculations your chip can perform per second. The higher your hashrate, the better your chances of solving the crypto challenge and collecting a block reward. Energy consumption is also essential to consider. This is where ASICs (Application-specific integrated circuit) come into play. This hardware efficiency is ideal for the serious mining outfit because it gets the most bang for the buck in hash output per cost of electricity spent, and ASICs don't need much of a start-up to go. They are a bit of a plug-and-play after some slight configurations. ASICs don't have much value for any other operations, so they can only sell to other cryptocurrency miners when one wants to upgrade to a better model. This is why it is crucial to choose the right mining hardware from the start. Don't rush your purchases. Do your research and establish your goals and your mining strategy before purchasing a rig.
Don't just go running out and buying the first ASIC product advertised. It helps do so some serious window shopping and to learn the differences between various ASIC rigs offered. Ideally, the formula should be the highest performance for the least amount of energy consumption. While there are several options available, don't be surprised if your actual purchase gets put on backorder. The demand is so high for the latest ASICs, production can't keep up with the need. To get started, you might want to consider used ASIC rigs. They will be lower in cost, get you in the game faster, and not spend as much upfront to get started. You may also want to consider your lifespan probability. How long are you going to be mining for? Are you looking for a short period of a few years, or are you willing to commit for a longer time? The duration of your commitment can significantly impact which equipment has the most likelihood of producing bitcoins for you.

[Bitcoin]

Binance: Passive Income|9:44

[Bitcoin]

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Bitcoin wallets are useful because they provide you with a valid Bitcoin address. Without a trusted address that only you have access to, you will not safely receive Bitcoin. And while you can store your bitcoins on an exchange, you should have a personal wallet for larger sums. Now, this may be a bit confusing, but actual bitcoins won't be in your wallet. This is kept with the public blockchain that makes up the Bitcoin network. However, you do control the keys to those coins, and no one else can get them. The Bitcoin wallet is where you store the keys. Like mining equipment, there are different choices for Bitcoin hardware wallets as well. The most important aspect is keeping your Bitcoin keys secure. For the beginner to get his or her feet wet, the software-based wallet is ideal. But as your funds value increasingly in time, you will need a hardware wallet to apply better security to access your funds.
There are many mining pools for Bitcoin mining. Just like the name sounds, a mining pool represents an aggregate mining team putting their resources together for a combined output. While no one player gets the entire rewards, everyone involved has a greater chance of getting some kind of Bitcoin reward faster than if they worked independently, at least on a probability basis. There is no requirement to join a mining pool. Any miner is quite free to keep working on their own with their equipment. However, the combination of everyone working together simply makes it easier to achieve a faster total hashrate, which is essential in today's evolved Bitcoin market where more work is needed to achieve results. The amount of computation needs and the speed at which the mining pools work simply outpace most individuals unless they have the resources to match the larger number of rigs needed. Instead, individual miners are better off combining their equipment with existing pools and leveraging the power of numbers to achieve a shared reward portion. In most cases, the mining pool administrator will assign a service that you are to connect to for participation. Through this channel, you will receive what is referred to as a block template. You will need to take the template and start trying to figure out what the next block will result in. This is known as proof of work. If the assumption is correct, then it goes back to the mining pool administrator, gets published, and a reward of bitcoins comes in if indeed accurate. Everyone who participated gets a block reward share based on the number of attempts they sent to the pool.
Bitcoin Miner and Cryptocurrency Hosting Solution Provider.
We help to Bitcoin mining Equipment and provide Premium Miner Hosting in Tier III and Tier II Data Centers.
Are you looking to buy the best Bitcoin mining equipment or want premium miner hosting services? If so, you've come to the right place! At Bitcoin Miner Hosting Solutions, we offer the most advanced Bitcoin mining hardware and cryptocurrency hosting solutions.
Whether you're a cryptocurrency hobbyist or a professional, we aim to make your mining more profitable by offering the latest and most effective Bitcoin mining ASIC hardware. Moreover, we specialize in hosting high-density computer hardware by allowing you to put your servers in our state-of-the-art data centers.
Our world-class Data Centers are managed by IT specialists and are capable of providing diverse power, seismic stability, and highly efficient cooling environments. You simply need to ship your equipment to our data center, and we will run your hardware in a professionally managed data center, without compromising on your control. What makes us different is our commitment to provide you 100% uptime and the best support in the industry. With us, your mining hardware is efficiently managed by our team of professional technicians and engineers who monitor our facilities around the clock.
To accommodate the needs of hundreds of our valued customers, we have top-notch Tier III and Tier II Class Data Centers that are located in Montreal and QC. We are the leading name in the industry not only for offering instant turn-key solutions but also for utilizing cleanest sources of energy. Our data centers are designed with energy efficiency in mind, and we make use of hydroelectric power to minimize the negative impact on the environment.
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Powerblocks.
It's time for everyone to be able to mine Bitcoin again.
Powerblocks allows home miners and hobbyists to save 50-80% on power, and convert more of their hashrate to bitcoins.
Powerblocks is designed to help more, smaller participants secure Bitcoin's network through decentralization of hashrate.
Powerblocks provide you with your own hardware and power contract, and allow you to mine to your own wallet.
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Contact the Compass team today to explore how we can work together.
Working with manufacturers, distributors and suppliers, we source all types of mining machines.
Compass provides financing and structured products to help miners purchase the equipment they need.
We support data center operators, colocation customers, and investors with the mining business.
Get more Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining insights.
Research and analysis from the industry's best analysts.
Compass is a Bitcoin-first company on a mission to support the decentralized growth of hashrate and strengthen network security by helping more people learn, explore and mine Bitcoin.
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Looking for hosting for Ethereum miners instead?
See GPU Rig hosting company BlockTree Technologies for customers seeking expertise in hosting GPU Rigs.
Our megawatt data center is built from the ground up to meet the specific power and cooling needs of your gear.
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The abundance of hydroelectricity in Washington makes our location perfect for providing hosting services.
We offer both flexible month-to-month contracts, and low-cost long-term contracts, so you can find a plan that is tailored to your budget.
It's our philosophy that you remain full owner over your miner at all times, and that's why we offer direct VLAN remote access to all of our customers no matter their size.
We have a redundant network configured for multiple ISPs. Our primary ISP is one of the fastest fiber optic providers in the nation.
We have also developed a web interface where you can monitor your temperatures and hashrates, and change pool settings on the fly.
Our facility is at a secure location with restricted access, CCTVs, and motion detectors.
Our friendly staff is available for support by email and phone in the event your miner encounters an issue.
Your equipment while it's with us is insured for its full value, so you never have to worry if your investment is safe.
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Bitcoin mining as a service, fully managed hosting in our private facility, located in Quebec, Canada.
Hosting solutions and maintenance of your Bitcoin miners.
D-Central is one of the few hashing centers that allow miners of any size to be part of the world's most powerful network, the Bitcoin Blockchain. Our miner hosting services are explicitly designed so that even miners with only one machine can return on investment. Naturally, remember that mining is not a safe way to make money. Your return will also depend on market conditions . We designed our hosting solutions to maximize your chances of making more bitcoins than by just buying them.
Bitcoin mining is a critical function of Bitcoin; however, very few people are interested in this avenue to acquire their bitcoins. Our case studies show that mining can be a great way to dollar cost average in Bitcoin if done right. It is a safer way to invest if you only place the number of machines you can afford to support financially. We offer the best cryptocurrency miner hosting you'll find.

[Bitcoin]

Bitcoin Q\u0026A: The Economics of Mining Pools|5:44

[Bitcoin]

BEFORE INVESTING IN CRYPTOCURRENCY MINING.
It is not as easy as it seems to become a Bitcoin miner. Before investing, make sure you understand what cryptocurrency mining involves. Bitcoin mining hardware is not cheap and can only do one thing, mine bitcoin. If you are looking to start your installation, you may face issues such as cooling, network security, insurance policy, etc. This is why D-Central offers its turnkey crypto-mining hosting services. Bitcoin is quite possibly the world's newest and most efficient store of value, but at this point, it's still experimental.
WHY MANAGED MINING HOSTING?
D-Central's all-inclusive miner hosting is helpful to its customers for a variety of reasons. The most popular reason is the reduction in costs for retail miners. Our fees for a managed service are lower than the prices of almost 99% of individuals wishing to mine. It is interesting for those with comparable costs to benefit from the same profitability, without having to make the least effort. This is because D-Central will do all the maintenance tasks, from cleaning up to restarting and debugging your mining hardware. More overseas companies would like to engage in Bitcoin mining operations, but cannot because of too high an energy price. It is interesting to do business with cryptocurrency mining experts. Our managed Bitcoin mining colocation offer allows everyone to do DCA in Bitcoin with the Mine&Hodl method, which happens to have a better performance than Buy&Hodl in almost all the case studies we have carried out.
Our Hosting Services Features.
D-Central empowers miner hosting in Quebec's province, thus benefiting from a substantial competitive advantage in terms of price, climate, and cleanliness. The jurisdictions of Canada and Quebec are also very politically stable, offering foreign investors a much-coveted comfort. In addition to sourcing from Hydro-Quebec with one of the cleanest energies in the world, D-Central aims to completely nullify the carbon emissions linked to its energy consumption by planting several trees necessary in Canada to counteract its ecological footprint.
Best/Safe Bitcoin Cloud Mining Companies 2020.
List of Best Bitcoin Cloud Mining Sites (updated as of 25 January 2020)
When investing in bitcoins , one needs to consider finding reliable websites to mine bitcoins in the cloud and generate cryptocurrencies periodically and safely. The problem with this type of investment is making a decision and betting on a site where cryptocurrencies won't be in danger of disappearing overnight. Therefore, if you're looking for websites to mine bitcoins, today weÕll offer the following to mine in the cloud safely:
1- CryptoUniverse 100% recommended and reliable. 2- VIABTC Best Bitcoin Cloud Mining companies. 3- Genesis Mining 100% recommended for bitcoin and ethereum Cloud mining. 4- VirtualMiningFarm 100 GHS free for bitcoin cloud mining. 5- Eobot is the easiest, cheapest, way to mine BTC and Crypto.
Started : 29/08/2019 Minimum Deposit : 0.001 BTC Minimum Withdrawal : 0.0005 BTC Payouts : Manual Referral : 5% Investment Plans: 3.6% DAILY (0.15% HOURLY) FOREVER.
Started: 01/07/2020 Minimum Deposit : 10 USD Minimum Withdrawal: 2 USD - For Cryptos 3 USD Payouts : Manual Referral : 5% - 1% - 1% Investment Plans: 4% Daily for 50 Days 5% Daily for 50 Days.
Add Time : 01/07/2020 Minimum Deposit : 10 USD Minimum Withdrawal: 1 USD Payouts : Manual Referral : 10% Investment Plans: 3% DAILY FOREVER.
Started: 02/08/2020 Minimum Deposit : 5 USD Payouts : Instant Referral : 3% up to 15% Investment Plans: 1.18% Hourly For 90 Hours (principal included) 0.50% Hourly For 288 Hours (principal included) 2.50% Hourly For 48 Hours (principal included) 6% Hourly For 24 Hours (principal included)
# 1 CryptoUniverse: Reliable and Secure Cryptocurrency Mining [100% RECOMMENDED]
CryptoUniverse is a cryptocurrency mining service that offers several mining packages at very low prices. The positive side is that it has been offering an uninterrupted service for a long time which is also fast when paying the daily mining rewards. If you still haven't started mining bitcoins or want to diversify your investment strategy, this is, without a doubt, one of the best options for mining bitcoins and cryptocurrencies. Cryptouniverse has become our main website for mining bitcoins safely while obtaining effective payments. In short, we recommend hiring the powerful Bitcoin mining SHA-256 because it will continue working and paying off for years, and from the first day of the website's operation. Without interruptions.
WHY SHOULD I TRUST Cryptouniverse?
CryptoUniverse provides to their user's services like Scrypt mining and SHA-256 , This service ( Script mining ) reduces power and improve mining efficiency. Among the many updates in the company, it makes the process more encouraging and rewarding, Unlike Genesis mining, Cryptouniverse provides you with the location of their main data centers, which is located at Kirishi, Irkutsk, and Siberia in .
And also provides you with full details of their workers, You will also be surprised that they have a unique feature like switching or changing mining pools which of course other cloud mining companies have it and no proof that a contract is just pointing to a specific pool.
PAYOUT/MAINTENANCE FEE:
It should get to your notice that payout on CryptoUniverse is made in BTC, so the total value of earnings in USD depends on the versatility of the BTC/USD exchange rate.
If BTC goes up in value, the same way the earning will increase in USD, if it goes down, so do earnings in USD. There is also a daily maintenance fee to be paid for BTC mining on Cryptouniverse.
Also, CryptoUniverse is very fast in paying out, when you want to withdraw your coins it can take within 48 Houres to get to your wallet,
Due to its two confirmation processes of authentication that will be sent through email.
Cryptouniverse Referral:
Cryptouniverse offers a %10 referral bonus, which gives the privilege to be among the highest-rated cloud mining company offering discounts. They don't offer a signup bonus at this moment but have special offers from time to time.
Cryptouniverse mining company is a very nice mining company to work with and have yourself get away with some great features that will benefit you after the long run in the industry.
# 2 VIABTC: A hard to find Bitcoin cloud mining site to profit handsomely [80% RECOMMENDED]
When it comes to Bitcoin, Litecoin and BitcoinCash mining pool, ViaBTC definitely deserves a special mention. The company boasts an extremely huge Bitcoin mining pool, which is currently the world's fifth in its growth. Just for the record, there are more than 16400 active workers in it. Plus, it promises pretty good returns. You can check how much you potentially could earn via a pool hash rate chart. The developers announce that soon people mining at ViaBTC will be able to participate in Bitcoin trading as well in their own trading platform.
Below, we have gathered its main features:
Cryptocurrency mining possibilities: Bitcoin, Litecoin, BitcoinCash, DASH, ZEC, XMR... Fees: a 4% fee is charged for the PPS payment system and a 2% fee for the PPLNS. The FAQ section is accurate and detailed. Real Transparency: you can check the Hashrate of pools when needed. Easily monitor, control and calculate earnings. Daily payments and automatic fees deduction. Good and highly rewarding Loyalty program. Low entry-level. Two-factor authentication.
How to start earning via ViaBTC.
Participating in its cloud mining operations is easy and accessible for everyone. A little entry-level makes it accessible to the majority of people around the world.
To become the miner here, you need to:
Create an account Select the required Hashrate and cryptocurrency. Create the contract and pay. Get your first payment the following day.
ViaBTC has become a boom in the cloud mining industry and promises to bring solid earnings to its investors.
# 3 Genesis Mining: Mining all types of Cryptocurrencies in the Cloud [100% RECOMMENDED]
If we are definitely going to bet on mining bitcoins in the cloud, we need to consider the Genesis Mining option, as this may be the giant of the bitcoin cloud mining world, due to a large number of customers and equipment theyÕve accumulated in its system, which is located in Iceland. Genesis Mining has provided bitcoin cloud mining services since 2014. It has a spectacular website and its social networks are constantly updated with information on cryptocurrencies and the evolution and progress of their service. In this service, you can choose the cryptocurrency you want to mine by choosing between Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dashcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Dogecoin, and Monero depending on your interests and the cryptocurrency that you want to accumulate in your account.