> Is this not already in the BTC situation, where you burn more in cost of electricity than you gain from mining? Granted, in this case it would be somebody else's electricity, but that feels a bit ethically grey, as well as perhaps environmentally irresponsible.
Probably. But the point is that it's not an alternative to mining for yourself, but an alternative to showing people ads or having people explicitly pay, which is likely to be even less efficient for very small transactions.
If you do it behind the users back, then sure, it might be ethically grey (though how many users care about how much/little electricity the game they play cause their computer to consume?), but the alternative is to clearly show a message saying you do this instead of showing them ads and/or offering them a button to switch to ads instead.
Probably. But the point is that it's not an alternative to mining for yourself, but an alternative to showing people ads or having people explicitly pay, which is likely to be even less efficient for very small transactions.
If you do it behind the users back, then sure, it might be ethically grey (though how many users care about how much/little electricity the game they play cause their computer to consume?), but the alternative is to clearly show a message saying you do this instead of showing them ads and/or offering them a button to switch to ads instead.