How to block Cryptocurrency mining in your Browser

Cryptocurrencies are virtual or digital currencies that are secured by encryption. As we know that the cryptocurrency system is a decentralized system, so no country, organization or authority controls it. In recent years we saw a steep hike in the value of cryptocurrency (not to forget bitcoin value which reached a whopping $19783 in December 2017).

Real money is made by miners and for this, they need powerful computers to mine the coins. But some miners are very clever or simply say cheaters, what they do is they install a small JavaScript file in your computer or browser when you visit their website. This small JavaScript file works in the background without user consent and uses your CPU power to mine cryptocurrency coins. This is the illegal way. That’s why you need to block cryptocurrency mining in your browser.

Many websites simply tell you when you visit their website that they will use your CPU power to mine coins till you stay on their site. Some websites also let you choose whether to let them mine coins using your CPU and use their services ad-free or browse/use their services/websites with ads on them. Here you get to choose if you want them to mine or go with ads. This is a legitimate way to earn some money for their business to keep rolling.

In most cases, it is totally harmless but this will affect your computer performance and battery life. It will also hike up your electricity bill marginally (in some cases). It’s a great exchange if you are not a fan of ads. That is why we recommend to block cryptocurrency mining for the websites which don’t disclose what they are up to.

But the real problem comes when websites owners mine on you without your consent and keep using your CPU resources even after you have left their site or closed the browser. They will keep working in background undetected. Some are so advanced that you can’t even detect or know that something is slowing down your computer.

Most users don’t mind websites owners mining coins on their PC till they are on their website but not everyone like it. Is there any way you can be sure that nothing is stealing your power? Of course, there is a way and following it you can easily block such mining in your browser.

Also Read – Remotely signout of social media accounts

How to Detect and block Cryptocurrency mining on your browser

If you suspect that any site is using your PC to mine coins then the very first basic thing you can do to detect is check your task manager or activity monitor which tells you how much resources are being used and by whom. Basically, any website using your PC for mining will hike up the CPU usage. We will use this method to find out the culprit.

Windows user open (Task Manager) – CTRL+ALT+DEL

Mac Users open (Activity Monitor) – Command+Space and search for activity monitor.

Now once you have opened your task manager or activity monitor, go to every site you suspect one by one. After visiting each website check the task manager to see if it hikes up the CPU usage or not and check till your suspect list is empty or you find the culprit.

If you are using chrome browser then you can also check resource usage from the browser itself. Just go to menu (top right 3 dots)>more tools>task manager and this will show window/tab wise CPU usage. This way you can even detect the mining website.

How to block cryptocurrency mining on your browser

The best thing you can do is to get the premium subscription of Malwarebytes which has the crypto mining protection. But if you are like me who seeks for free stuff then there many good extensions which can protect you from lechers.

We managed to list out some good extensions for your browsers which will make sure you don’t become a victim and the extensions are:

1. No coin (chrome, Firefox and Opera): No Coin is one of the best free (open source) extension out there to block cryptocurrency mining. It is very simple and works smoothly. Once you install, it will automatically detect any mining and will alert you with a red color sign. You even get an option to whitelist a mining website if you want for a limited time.
2. minerBlock (chrome, Firefox and Opera): It is another free tool to detect and block cryptocurrency mining script running on your browser. Minerblock contains a list of all domains currently know to mine and blocks javascript when you visit any one of the sites. This list is updated over time.
3. Coin hive Blocker (Chrome): Coin hive basically provides mining script to website owners. Users can insert the script on their website and after that, any visitor visiting your site will be mining coins for you. To combat that Coin-hive blocker tool was developed to block such scripts and other popular mining websites.
4. Anti-Miner (Chrome): This is another great tool to block cryptocurrency mining on your browser. Once installed it will alert of any such activity or you decide which to block and which to block.

We know that these websites use the JavaScript file to mine coins, we can approach a built-in method in chrome which stops websites from running JavaScript files. By default this permission is allowed as many sites require JavaScript files to run like Facebook won’t run if JavaScript is disabled. But recent update in chrome has given you the power to create a list of blocked and allowed sites where you can easily block any site from running JavaScript files.

Also Read – How to view saved password in any browser

You can access this setting by going to menu (3 vertical dots at top right)>Settings>click on ‘Advanced’>under “Privacy and security”>Content setting>JavaScript.

Now here you will see an option to block all sites from using JavaScript on you or you can add sites you want to block in the blocked lists and other in the white/allowed lists. Just click on add and type in the domain name of lechers/mining sites in the blocked lists. If you want legitimate sites to mine because they clearly revealed or exchanging service for mining then you can put them in allowed lists.

This way you can block cryptocurrency mining in your browser. If you have something to share/ask our comment section is always there for you. We will reply ASAP.

This was all about how to block cryptocurrency mining in your browser. If you know any other method or got stuck with something from this article then feel free to reach to us via the comment section.