Steam Pulled an Indie Game Accused of Being an Elaborate Cryptocurrency Mining Scam

Steam Pulled an Indie Game Accused of Being an Elaborate Cryptocurrency Mining Scam

6 years ago
Anonymous $oIHRkISgaL

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gy3dx7/steam-pulled-game-for-alleged-cryptocurrency-mining-scam-abstractism

On Monday Valve pulled an indie game from its digital games marketplace, Steam, that was allegedly a front for a cryptocurrency mining operation. The game, called Abstracticism, allegedly hijacked players’ computers and used them to mine cryptocurrency.

The scam is known as “cryptojacking”; when hackers force a victim’s computer to dedicate resources to guessing the correct value that validates a block of cryptocurrency transaction data. This process is extremely resource-intensive and can lead to overheating and slowdowns. Cryptocurrency mining can be lucrative as miners are rewarded with digital coins, which scammers receive without having to buy their own computers to do the mining with.