Cryptocurrency Mining Tool Coinhive Shuts Down Due to Economic Viability Concerns
After 18 months of operation, the team behind the Monero mining tool Coinhive has announced its decision to cease operations. The closure, scheduled for March 8, 2019, is attributed to a significant drop in hash rate following a Monero hard fork, coupled with the sharp depreciation of XMR value by over 85% in the past year.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the Coinhive team explained that the economic challenges posed by these factors, along with an upcoming hard fork and algorithm update for the Monero network on March 9, have led to the conclusion that the project is no longer sustainable.
Despite being a legitimate browser-based mining tool, Coinhive gained notoriety for being exploited by cyber-criminals worldwide. In February last year, it was discovered on over 4000 websites, including those of US and UK government agencies, after being installed via a supply chain attack.
According to Check Point, Coinhive remained the most prevalent form of ‘malware’ for the 13th consecutive month, affecting 12% of organizations globally as of December 2018. Other cryptocurrency mining software also ranked high on the list of detected threats.
While cryptojacking does not involve data theft, it can lead to system crashes and increased power consumption when installed on corporate servers. Trend Micro reported a 237% increase in detections of cryptocurrency mining malware in 2018, with hackers utilizing various methods such as exploit kits, plug-ins, malicious ads, server exploits, and more.
As Coinhive prepares to wind down its operations, users will have until April 30, 2019, to access their dashboards and initiate payouts if their balances meet the minimum threshold. This marks the end of an era for the controversial mining tool, as the cryptocurrency landscape continues to evolve amidst ongoing security challenges.