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Mine Ethereum Cryptocurrency with Norton Antivirus

June 3, 2021

Looking for new software features? Look no further. The Register reports that the Norton 360 security suite now has an option to let your computer mine Ethereum cryptocurrency. What could go wrong? Since NortonLifeLock now owns Symantec, perhaps it hopes to gain market share by allowing users to generate a little extra money mining cryptocurrency. NortonLifeLock stated, “For years, many coinminers have had to take risks in their quest for cryptocurrency, disabling their security in order to run coinmining and allowing unvetted code on their machines that could be skimming from their earnings or even planting ransomware.” Seriously?

Apparently, Norton 360 will store your mined Ethereum in the cloud since hard drives can fail. True. A meteor can fall on your house too, but it is highly unlikely. The announcement also let out a lot of details as to how the mining operation will work. Since the computer’s graphic processor is used for cryptocurrency mining, what is the performance impact if your machine doesn’t have a discrete graphics chip and has a more common integrated graphics processor? Will your machine be a discrete processing engine or will the processing be pooled with other computers running Norton 360? How do you cash out the mined Ethereum? Will NortonLifeLock take a “cut” of the mined cryptocurrency? Don’t forget that you will also need to report any cryptocurrency activity to the IRS and pay taxes.

Call me crazy, but I think NortonLifeLock is crazier. No wonder I never liked Symantec products.

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