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Cryptojacking is the act of exploiting a computer to mine cryptocurrencies, often through websites, [1] [2] [3] against the user's will or while the user is unaware. [4] One notable piece of software used for cryptojacking was Coinhive, which was used in over two-thirds of cryptojacks before its March 2019 shutdown. [5]
The legal status of cryptocurrencies varies substantially from one jurisdiction to another, and is still undefined or changing in many of them. [1] Whereas, in the majority of countries the usage of cryptocurrency isn't in itself illegal, its status and usability as a means of payment (or a commodity) varies, with differing regulatory implications.
Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is the first decentralized cryptocurrency. Based on a free-market ideology, bitcoin was invented in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, an unknown entity (person or persons). [5] Use of bitcoin as a currency began in 2009, [6] with the release of its open-source implementation.
In 2009, the bitcoin network went online. Bitcoin is a proof-of-work digital currency that, like Finney's RPoW, is also based on the Hashcash PoW. But in bitcoin, double-spend protection is provided by a decentralized P2P protocol for tracking transfers of coins, rather than the hardware trusted computing function used by RPoW.
By August 2021, mining was concentrated in the U.S. (35%), Kazakhstan (18%), and Russia (11%) instead. [11] A study in Scientific Reports found that from 2016 to 2021, each US dollar worth of mined bitcoin caused 35 cents worth of climate damage, compared to 95 for coal, 41 for gasoline, 33 for beef, and 4 for gold mining. [12]
The implementation of the blockchain within bitcoin made it the first digital currency to solve the double-spending problem without the need for a trusted authority or central server. The bitcoin design has inspired other applications [ 3 ] [ 2 ] and blockchains that are readable by the public and are widely used by cryptocurrencies .
CryptoLocker typically propagated as an attachment to a seemingly innocuous email message, which appears to have been sent by a legitimate company. [5] A ZIP file attached to an email message contains an executable file with the filename and the icon disguised as a PDF file, taking advantage of Windows' default behaviour of hiding the extension from file names to disguise the real .EXE extension.
An example paper printable bitcoin wallet consisting of one bitcoin address for receiving and the corresponding private key for spending. A cryptocurrency wallet is a device, [1] physical medium, [2] program or an online service which stores the public and/or private keys [3] for cryptocurrency transactions.