Norton 360 Antivirus Software Will Let Users Mine Ethereum From Personal Computers

Antivirus software will enable users to mine Ethereum from their personal computers.

What Happened: American software company NortonLifeLock Inc NLOK will now let users of its antivirus software mine the Ethereum ETH/USD cryptocurrency directly from the program.

According to a press release, the new mining feature called “Norton Crypto” will be rolled out to all Norton 360 antivirus users enrolled in Norton's early adopter program.

Once Norton Crypto is enabled, the software will use the device's graphics card (GPU) to mine Ethereum, which will then be transferred into a Norton wallet hosted in the cloud.

The company believes that this feature allows users to mine Ethereum without sacrificing their security, given that cryptocurrency miners and related software are commonly flagged by antivirus software.

"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.

"Norton Crypto is yet another innovative example of how we are expanding our Cyber Safety platform to protect our customers’ ever-evolving digital lives."

The company also said that once the 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.

Read also: Tesla Competitor Becomes First To Mine Dogecoin, Bitcoin, Ethereum With Parked Electric Cars

Given a large number of participants in the Ethereum mining ecosystem, Norton Crypto will likely pool its users together for a greater chance of earning the rewards from successfully mining Ethereum.

In May, Ethereum miners earned a record $2.35 billion in revenue and outpaced Bitcoin miners' earnings for the month.

Price Action: At press time, Ethereum was trading at $2,867 after gaining 5.57% in the past 24-hours.

The cryptocurrency saw an 18% increase in its daily trading volume, which stood at over $30 billion at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, shares of Norton closed Wednesday’s session at a 16-month high of $28.49.