Change.org screensaver mines cryptocurrency for charity

Efforts to converge cryptocurrency mining with charity work continued, this time with a concept introduced by social petition platform Change.org. The website has teamed up with marketing agency Traceylocke Brazil for a screensaver that mines cryptocurrency while the user’s computer is idle.

On its website, Change.org said the screensaver “ensures that your computer mines cryptocurrency when you’re not using it,” noting that the amount earned from the activity “is directly donated to the Change.org Foundation.” It’s an interesting way of using cryptocurrency to say the least.

The petition platform estimates that if around 10,000 computers use the screensaver for about 12 hours a day, they could generate in excess of $10,000 worth of donations in a single month. At the moment, the program is only available for Windows users and there is no indication whether Change.org will issue a Mac version in the future.

According to Change.org, the activity “is legal, safe, simple and has nothing to do with hacker activities, viruses or any other digital threats.”

The site did not mention which cryptocurrency the screensaver mines, but according to reports, the open source program was built on the Monero platform, which is a privacy-centric cryptocurrency. Some members of the crypto community, meanwhile, suspect that the Change.org screensaver may have been built using what is termed as a modified version of Coinhive’s API.

The Change.org screensaver is the latest effort to use cryptocurrency mining to raise funds for charity. Early this year, UNICEF launched Gamer Chaingers, a program that took advantage of cryptocurrency mining to deliver funds to the group, foregoing the need to ask the public for donations. The program was designed to raise funds to protect Syrian children.

UNICEF Australia, meanwhile, has “The Hopepage,” a website that uses its visitors’ processing power to mine cryptocurrency, which, in turn, is donated to the non-profit organization.