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There is an article in this mornings Baltimore Sun (not necessarily advocating for the Sun.) about the malware going around that allows ones computer to be shared but nefarious people to mine for digital currency.
I understand that this can be done and I have done things to try to protect my computers (ie., usual fire walls and virus protection, turning off "magic packet")
What I do not understand is what actually are people searching (computing) for. How and what do they turn their searches (computations) for and how does this have a monetary value.

Crypto currecy like BitCoin (there are now 1300+ of them) can be mined (there term for using computational power to get the coins). It takes a large amount of computational power to do it, so having distributed computing with many CPU's is where you get advantage. Basic description, it is a big thing.

The newer crypto currencies can be mined by video cards running on a PC. Have family and friends doing this with up to 13 multicore video cards in one PC for processing.

The nefarious types just take over machines with malware and let them do the mining.

thanks
but what are they actually finding. How is this monetized

The cryptologic chain that is the currency. That is all BitCoin is. It exists only in cyberspace until you create a virtual bank account to hold the coins. I am not well versed in it but others I know are.

They just take over machines to find the block chains that are for specific coins in certain sites. Even BitCoin is not traded on the stock market and will soon be useful with Amex CC's. Lots of rules need to be setup to make it more normal. It is not tied to any normal currency, but can be traded for it.

Some view it as a world wide monetary system not tied to governments. Very volatile but can be a possible long term investment for risk takers.

The real tip is Turn off your Computer when you are not sitting there using it.
If its not online 24/7, that eliminates the value to the bot networks

if you use windows MS turns on magic packet as default.
the system can still be turned on via Ethernet. You have to disable magic packet to be completely safe or unplug Ethernet cable.
Turning off the computer via its power switch does not turn everything off. If you use a power strip then you are safe
I do not know if Apple or Linux has this problem or not

Its a Power on LAN toggle - it is NOT set as default on a MAC -
probably not on Linux, god save you if it is on via Microsoft.
Heck, Microsoft has to gone to allowing App Installs without requesting permission -
Thats a stupid Default setting that put you at risk!

see - https://www.howtogeek.com/342871/hey-mi ... ut-asking/

Paul,

Bitcoin mining is a peer-to-peer network, ie: there is no centralized server, bitcoin software on one computer talk to other instances of bitcoin software on other computers directly. Since there is no centralized server coordinating/managing the bitcoin transactions and mining, there is no kill switch.

I am not surprised some smart dudes have comeup with way to spread the software and harvest unsuspected computers. It would spread like a virus or a worm, either thru emails, or some links on the web. Although it is possible to probe computers on the network for security holes and get in that way, but that would be too much work. Only hackers use that method.

Bitcoin is created on the concept of gold. Gold holds its value due to its scarcity. The number of bitcoins in circulation is limited and tightly controlled creating artificial demand and value.

There are two uses of bitcoin, as tender for goods and services like currency and an asset like Gold. Bitcoin and its variants do not have feature as legal tender for several reasons in my opinion. As an asset, it doesnt have any long standing value either. Financial instruments like stocks have asset backing which gives them the value. Commodities like Gold, hogs etc have intrinsic value. In contract, bitcoin does not have an real asset value, only the speculative value based on the "demand". Once the euphoria is over, bitcoins will be worth nothing.

Bitcoin mining is also modeled after gold mining. If an individual is successful in mining (ie: validating transactions) he is awarded new bitcoins.

The real value for nation states in the figure is the technology behind bitcoin, cryptography and blockchaining. All transactions of bitcoin are validated (by mining) in a decentralized way, which makes it virtually impossible to hold and deal in black money. Over the next few years, I would expect nation states to using blockchaining type of technology to keep track of large value currency transactions

I turn "power on lan" off too
There are a ton of YouTube videos on building Bitcoin mining boxes using multiple high end video cards.
Software is open and available.
Then I found numerous vids on Bitcoin mining server farms with thousands of servers running. One was in Iceland utilizing the natural climate for cooling. Others in Russia.
So if there are all these people with all that computing power competing for bitcoins how is anyone finding anything of value

Most everything's value is based in at least some part by it's availability. Most everything is an actual thing made of matter. Bitcoin is vapor, actually, not even vapor.

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