• Midnight Wolf@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    Wouldn’t it be more akin to a cryptominer, since it’s not doing anything with intent to harm or damage data, but the goal is to gain funds without the user’s knowledge?

    • 4am@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      2 days ago

      A crypto miner uses electricity to test cryptographic solutions in order to find a specific one that “solves” a block of transactions on an blockchain. In order to do this, it runs hashing functions on your computer (usually your GPU).

      It’s stealing your processing power and electricity; so no it’s not the same as a cryptocurrency miner, which is theft and fraud of a different type.

      • Midnight Wolf@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        2 days ago

        Yeah, I know the details but for a widely distributed program with unwanted ‘feature’, it seemed to fit the bill close enough. It’s not 1:1 but I don’t think there’s a name for what honey is, and labeling it as something like a ‘Potentially Unwanted Program’ is too wide of a category for it, since it does do what it says for the user, just also for its own self-interests as well…