How to get bitcoin through your computer. Choose your wallet

Are your favorite websites mining Bitcoin? Here's how to find out Some websites might be using your CPU to mine cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin without your knowledge.

Taylor Martin Feb. PT Mining of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin can be lucrative. But there's a catch: it requires time and a lot of computing power.

If you could somehow spread those computing demands out among hundreds — and sometimes even thousands or millions — of unknowing users, it would greatly reduce the cost and time of mining expensive coins. As nefarious as that sounds, it's exactly what several websites were discovered to be doing by IT security company ESET in September last year.

Previously, criminals would go about hijacking someone else's computer to mine coins through a malicious program that was installed. But a more lightweight and less noticeable at least from the user's perspective way of doing it is by running a JavaScript file right from within the browser — no exploits or vulnerabilities needed. Instead of infecting the users' computers, websites are being infected with malicious ads.

All that needs to happen for mining to begin is that a user needs to visit an infected website with JavaScript enabled.