Be careful about new idle games/cryptominers.

[Kreisleiter Muffin]

It's something that has been a growing problem among new idle games. I won't mention any games/miners directly but I been keeping track on this for some time now and it seems to be more and more common.

Have Valve said anything about this recently? Idle games using 80-100% of your computer. If you disable your connection it goes back down to 5-10%. If I would hide a cryptominer, an idle game would be p e r f e c t. Using whireshark is also great to see which idle games do this.


Valve should at least be more careful about these so called miners. I am sure they do a good job but it's sad to see some slip through.


What do you guys think? Is this a growing problem that Valve needs to look into now that crypto is all the rage.

[Peelsepuuppi]

If that is a real thing that's happening on steam, then valve should absolutely look into it. Software with unreported cryptominers are malware.

However the only thing I can find about this when searching the subject matter are bunch of articles from 2018 according to which valve removed a game that allegedly had cryptominers in them.

[CrazyGecko]

It seem's to be a problem that's always been there but ebb's and flows. There's been a few times in the past I've seen reviews for some idle style games that are unusually resource hungry when they shouldn't and I just ignore them.

I haven't seen these kind of reviews for awhile so I'm assuming Valve are doing what they can on the matter but some will slip through the cracks unfortunately. How long it takes for it to be discovered and taken down is another matter.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Here pro tip, visit game store page, and report the game in question, the report button isn't there for show, it's there for a reason. Steam can't micro manage every single update, or games being added daily on Steam, as it's automated, so this is where community come into play to report these findings to help Steam catch these things. Steam rely on community to report things, so they can look into the issue at hand.

Also if the game was actually bitcoin mining you want to display proof of work when you make a ticket to share with Steam support.



There sometimes I seen online for people making false claims, either they made a mistake, and didn't realize it was related to something else on their system, or assume because of bad optimization of the game to be malicious or such, when it was just a poorly coded game.

If the game is high CPU usage, but not GPU usage, then it's very unlikely to be a bitcoin miner, because CPU are not profitable at all compare to GPUs that can make 30x+ more than CPU's can make in hashrates.

[Peelsepuuppi]

引用自 davidb11：

OP, please do not engage in malicious libel. That's just rude.

You must provide evidence or you must redact your claims.

Libel towards whom? Valve? He didn't actually mention any developers by name.

[Satoru]

https://xkcd.com/285/

[Kreisleiter Muffin]

引用自 davidb11：

引用自 ToveriJuri：

Libel towards whom? Valve? He didn't actually mention any developers by name.

Yes, I am aware he didn't name names.
But if he does, it is then malicious libel.
I'm warning him in advance.

The rules are there for a reason. He has to provide evidence of any game he claims having this in it. Period.

Do not worry on my part. I have gone to the propper ways to inform Valve about malicious software in my past 7 years on Steam.

Before you accuse me of malicious libel even more...

[Satoru]

引用自 まりこ：

引用自 davidb11：

Yes, I am aware he didn't name names.
But if he does, it is then malicious libel.
I'm warning him in advance.

The rules are there for a reason. He has to provide evidence of any game he claims having this in it. Period.

Do not worry on my part. I have gone to the propper ways to inform Valve about malicious software in my past 7 years on Steam.

Before you accuse me of malicious libel even more...

And again

CITATION NEEDED https://xkcd.com/285/

You're now just making up a problem, so you can pretend you can be indignant of a lack of a solution, to a problem you literally are just lying about

[Someone in the crowd]

Hmm. Haven't heard of such games myself, but due to the fact that cryptojacking and similar network issues are getting out of hand, who knows? There may be something like that going on, but I personally, haven't seen anything similar.
If it does exist, Valve and other online game stores should do their best to get rid of those fiends.
Although as sir or milady stated above, if there are certain examples, perhaps steam support should be informed.

[rawWwRrr]

引用自 まりこ：

What do you guys think? Is this a growing problem that Valve needs to look into now that crypto is all the rage.

Valve have removed game content in the past because it turned out to be more crypto miner than an actual game.

Technically, buying/installing a game off of Steam that is a crypto miner wouldn't be a violation of Steam's TOS with developers as long as they made it clear on the game's store page what it was. Crypto miners aren't illegal.

What would be a violation is if they were being included surreptitiously, tricking the players into using their computers to mine. In that case, if proven to be a hidden crypto miner, the best course of action is to utilize Steam's tools such as the report function on that game's store page and leaving a negative review.

[Start_Running]

引用自 rawWwRrr：

引用自 まりこ：

What do you guys think? Is this a growing problem that Valve needs to look into now that crypto is all the rage.

Valve have removed game content in the past because it turned out to be more crypto miner than an actual game.

[Citation Needed]

[Mad Scientist]

引用自 davidb11：

OP, please do not engage in malicious libel. That's just rude.

You must provide evidence or you must redact your claims.

Do you have evidence of malicious libel against something not directly named? OP also brings doubt to innocence to unmentioned games due to the immense resource use and specific software which would confirm suspicion:

引用自 まりこ：

I won't mention any games/miners directly but I been keeping track on this for some time now and it seems to be more and more common.

There's probably been a few, it's not a large issue. Some small games are extremely demanding, which are usually Voxel based games as example, which could be confused as Crypto being involved, when it's not. But it won't use 100% when you use a certain CPU/GPU or higher.

Also for everyone else, it's been a while but I believe one or two games were removed for having a cryptominer involved. Wasn't "Abstractism" that was accused of such? (Notice how this is a question not an accusation)

[Magma Dragoon]

Yes and that game also had clones of valuable TF2 items intended for use in trade and market scams

[Start_Running]

引用自 Magma Dragoon：

Yes and that game also had clones of valuable TF2 items intended for use in trade and market scams

And that is what it got pulled for. There was never any evidence of Crypto mining. Just market shennanigans.

[Start_Running]

引用自 davidb11：

Look, he has to provide evidence of these things existing. Period.
He cannot go around and spread nonsensical statements.

So, why are we getting hung up over words here?

The most common resopnse sentiment here is [CItation Needed] So that's something we're all waiting for. We have been every ssince the first allegations of crypto mining games surfaced years ago... yet to see any though.

[Mad Scientist]

引用自 davidb11：

Look, he has to provide evidence of these things existing. Period.
He cannot go around and spread nonsensical statements.

So, why are we getting hung up over words here?

One DuckDuckGo search confirms this has happened, let alone google. Please stop trying lawyer-ish stuff here, this is an open forum discussion not a court room.

Even an older IT troubleshooting software at one point had a cryptominer in it, that made the online news as well. It's rare, very rare, but it has happened. Just not to the extent the OP believes for a reason I mentioned (as people with low quality hardware could see crypto-like effects when it;s just an underpowered system with specific games/game types).