HN of all places really surprised me with this reaction. Publishers _desperately_ need an alternative payment system with the convenience of an ad-supported model, microtransactions, and a direct payer-payee relationship. Browser-based mining has a potential to provide that, but it is still very early and evolving.

Also why is everyone talking about Bitcoin in this thread? No one is trying to mine Bitcoin in the browser. There are other cryptocurrencies than Bitcoin. Some of those are designed to run in the browser specifically to address the concern with using a POW system in an intentionally resource-constrained environment.