Salon.com wants to fight ad-blockers by using your PC to mine cryptocurrency

Claiming that ad-blockers have cut "deeply" into its revenue, the media company Salon is asking some readers to bolster its bottom line — by helping the site generate cryptocurrency.

The move, launched Feb 11, makes Salon one of the first major online publishers to adopt virtual currencies as an alternative revenue stream, and highlights the ongoing difficulty that many news sites face in an era of declining ad income. In an interview, Salon chief executive Jordan Hoffner said that early data suggests some users are choosing to support the alternative funding model. The technology is designed to consume a reader's unused processor power to help perform the decryption needed to create new monero coins, which are currently worth about $233 each. If enough readers participate in the program, Salon reasons, it could lead to meaningful revenue.