A few bad apples appears to have spoiled the whole bunch on the Chrome Web Store. Google has announced that it is banning all Chrome extensions that mine cryptocurrency.
Until recently, the Google allowed Chrome extensions that explicitly mined cryptocurrency. The idea is that while mining through a browser is less than efficient, some people might want to engage in the activity anyway. The caveat being that this has to be all that the extension does.
Unfortunately, a large number of extensions instead hid miners within their functions. Allowing people to steal processing cycles for cryptocurrency mining without the knowledge of their victims. It’s the proliferation of these malicious extensions that has pushed Google towards getting rid of all miners on its platforms.
Google has been pushing back against the use of unethical cryptocurrency activities. It recently announced that it would be blocking cryptocurrencies from its advertising platform; mostly to protect people from scams.
This is unlikely to be a major problem for Chrome users or miners. For the most part, it should be for the benefit of the public as it keeps them safe from malicious actors. On the other hand, since most malicious miners are hidden, it may have little effect on the overall picture.
[Source: Google]
