Opera adds anti-cryptocurrency mining feature to mobile browsers

The new anti-cryptocurrency mining feature is activated by default when a user activates the ad blocker on Opera Mini browser and Opera for Android. (Image Source: Opera)

Opera Internet browser on Monday launched Bitcoin mining protection feature in its mobile browser to protect users from ‘cryptojacking’ or ‘cryptocurrency mining’ which makes secret use of their computing device for mining cryptocurrency. “When you browse the web, there are no visual clues that your device is exposed to mining,” Jan Standal, Vice President, Product Marketing at Opera, said in a statement.

Cryptocurrency mining drains a smartphone battery and dramatically overworks its CPU. “A single web page you visit can take up to 4.5 hours of your battery time, if you keep the tab open. This often turns out to be just the battery time you needed to use a ride-hailing app or check the map to get home,” Standal added.

The new anti-cryptocurrency mining feature is activated by default when a user activates the ad blocker on Opera Mini browser and Opera for Android. The ad blocker can be enabled in ‘settings’ that will automatically detect and stop the mining scripts written into the coding of a web page.

The company rolled out the protection against cryptocurrency mining scripts for its desktop products some time ago.