Planning to dip your toes in the cryptocurrency craze but hesitant to do so due to privacy and security issues? Well, the anti-virus giant NortanLifeLock has announced a new feature that enables users to mine cryptocurrency safely and easily.
Norton Crypto
Dubbed as Norton Crypto, this new feature is designed to enable consumers to mine cryptocurrency through its trusted Norton 360 platform. Initially, the company will invite selected Norton 360 customers in Norton’s early adopter program to mine for Ethereum.
“As the crypto economy continues to become a more important part of our customers’ lives, we want to empower them to mine cryptocurrency with Norton, a brand they trust,” said Vincent Pilette, CEO of NortonLifeLock.
Available in upcoming weeks
Norton Crypto is expected to become available to all Nortan 360 customers in the coming weeks. However, we are not sure how Nortan’s mining will work since it takes high-end computer hardware to do complex calculations.
NortanLifeLock didn’t brief anything about how it will carry out the mining or will it take any cut. According to Bleepingcomputers, when the Nortan Crypto is enabled, the software will use the computer’s graphic card (GPU) to mine Ethereum.
But what’s not clear is that the device running Norton Crypto is mining independently or as part of a pool of users to get a reward of Ethereum. It’s worth mentioning here that mining Ethereum solo is at a profit is not easy, even on the dedicated hardware. There are large chances that users will be pooled together.
A secure and reliable way
According to the company, many coinminers have had to take risks in their quest for cryptocurrency, disabling their security to run coinmining and allowing unvetted code on their machines that could be skimming from their earnings or even planting ransomware.
However, the Nortan Crypto claims to deliver a secure, reliable way for consumers to mine for Ethereum without opening themselves and their devices up to these pitfalls.
Norton Crypto Waller
Once cryptocurrency has been earned, customers can track and transfer earnings into their Norton Crypto Wallet, which is stored in the cloud so it cannot be lost due to hard drive failure, says the company. A Norton spokesperson told The Verge that once cryptocurrency has been earned, it will be possible to “pull money into Coinbase.”
“We are proud to be the first consumer Cyber Safety company to offer coinminers the ability to safely and easily turn the idle time on their PCs into an opportunity to earn digital currency,” said Gagan Singh, chief product officer at NortonLifeLock.
The company told CNN it was considering adding other cryptocurrencies in addition to Ethereum in the future.