Coin Auth

Basically, Coin Auth works by requesting the CoinHive to load their mining script on your WordPress login page. This is visually similar to reCaptcha and once someone clicks on the ‘Verify’ checkbox, their device is using its computing power in hashing Monero(XMR) cryptocurrency.

To do this, first you’ll need to install the plugin from wordpress.org and get a CoinHive account. After creating your account, get your public and private key from the Sites & API keys page and enter it inside Coin Auth’s dashboard. This is located inside Settings > Coin Auth.

There’s also an option to whitelist IP’s and a handy Monero conversion box on the right.

After setting it up, you’ll get the Verification box on the login page. On a fairly decent computer(I’m running a Razer Blade 14), it takes about 3-5 seconds to process 256 hashes. It does get visibly laggy during those few seconds.

The best thing is how easy it is to setup Coin Hive. Once you start earning sufficient Monero you can put your payment address inside CoinHive’s dashboard to receive payments.

(Disclaimer: I’m not a professional tester nor a crypto expert)

With the drama surrounding Cryptocurrencies, its best to peek under the hood and check the plugin for yourself to see if there’s any funny business going on. Thankfully, this plugin seems pretty safe.

There are only two files included. One is the php file which generates the options page and authenticates with CoinHive. The other is a javascript file which runs the Coinhive script for mining. In case you’re wondering why its XMR, its cause the hashing function(Cryptonight) is most efficient on consumer grade hardware like your laptop, mobile phone, etc.

Its a clever idea but don’t expect too much from it. You’ll need around 1,70,66,666 hashes(currently) to generate 0.001 XMR. This is about 0.000029061167 BTC which is only 0.27 USD.

If you divide 1,70,66,666 by 256(which is the default number of hashes per login), you’ll get 66,666 which is basically the login attempts needed to generate 0.001XMR.

In short – if you want to generate money from login attempts, wait for XMR’s value to go up or look for something else.