The international charity has unveiled a project called TheHopePage, which is used for making donations. All one needs to do is keep the webpage open: by doing so users allow their computer’s processing unit to be used to mine digital coins, namely Monero, by exploiting an application by Coinhive.
Each time one goes to the website, they specify and confirm how much power – from 20 to 80 percent – they would like to give away. So, it turns out that internet users actually give their consent to have their donations processed.
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And the goal is explicit indeed: Jennifer Tierney, UNICEF Australia’s director of fundraising and communications, noted that the company was seeking to use the nascent technologies to "raise awareness of the humanitarian crises and raise funds to support children caught up in them."
Nevertheless, the idea is not new. In February, UNICEF asked avid video game players to install mining software Claymore to crowdfund for kids affected by the raging Syrian crisis.
Separately, media outlet Salon is known to have commercially tested in-browser mining, also exploiting Coinhive for that purpose. By doing so their marketers hoped to generate revenue from sources other than online adverts.