Malicious software that secretly performs mining in the background of a computer as long as it is powered on. If sufficient computers have been compromised with crypto mining malware, the perpetrator may be able to harvest new coins from the block rewards from time to time. However, depending on the crypto being mined, it may take hundreds or even thousands of compromised computers to make any money. Mining malware may also be activated when visiting a website (see
cryptojacking). See
crypto mining and
block reward.