user-1: I'm a teaching assistant for a 2nd year undergrad computer science course, and one of my students started talking to me about bitcoin (which I personally detest, but admittedly know nothing about), and he showed me this idea of "mining bitcoin".
He was using this site called AuroraMine, which, as he explained it to me, will mine bitcoin for the trade-off of running background processes on your computer. (You pay them, and they pay you if your generated key/hash breaks open a bitcoin block...or something like that.)
Now, how on earth is this any different than botting? I'm deeply concerned he fell for a scam, and his computer is simply being botted for malicious intent (e.g. hacking encryption keys, DDOS attacks, etc.) In fact, the breaking of an encryption key is not very far from the analogy of breaking open a "bitcoin block" with a "hash", or whatever.
So, does anyone know what this stuff actually is? Is it at the bare minimum, not malicious?  Thank you, all.

user48884: 
He was using this site called AuroraMine, which, as he explained it to me, will mine bitcoin for the trade-off of running background processes on your computer.

That does not seem right. The website that you linked to does not have anywhere to download any software. It looks like to be a cloud mining service where you essentially rent hash rate to mine Bitcoin. However the vast majority of these services are scams (many are just ponzi schemes) or simply unprofitable (why would the owners be renting their hardware away if they could be making more by just mining with their hardware for themselves).

Now, how on earth is this any different than botting? I'm deeply concerned he fell for a scam, and his computer is simply being botted for malicious intent (e.g. hacking encryption keys, DDOS attacks, etc.)

Your student himself might have fallen for a scam, but Bitcoin mining in general is very different from botting and is not malicious.

In fact, the breaking of an encryption key is not very far from the analogy of breaking open a "bitcoin block" with a "hash", or whatever.

That's just completely wrong and not at all how Bitcoin mining works.

-1: <p>I'm a teaching assistant for a 2nd year undergrad computer science course, and one of my students started talking to me about bitcoin (which I personally detest, but admittedly know nothing about), and he showed me this idea of "mining bitcoin".</p>

<p>He was using this site called <a href="https://www.auroramine.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">AuroraMine</a>, which, as he explained it to me, will mine bitcoin for the trade-off of running background processes on your computer. (You pay them, and they pay you if your generated key/hash breaks open a bitcoin block...or something like that.)</p>

<p>Now, how on earth is this any different than <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_bot" rel="nofollow noreferrer">botting</a>? I'm deeply concerned he fell for a scam, and his computer is simply being botted for malicious intent (e.g. hacking encryption keys, DDOS attacks, etc.) In fact, the breaking of an encryption key is not very far from the analogy of breaking open a "bitcoin block" with a "hash", or whatever.</p>

<p>So, does anyone know what this stuff actually is? Is it at the bare minimum, not malicious? <br> Thank you, all.</p>
 48884: <blockquote>
  <p>He was using this site called AuroraMine, which, as he explained it to me, will mine bitcoin for the trade-off of running background processes on your computer.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>That does not seem right. The website that you linked to does not have anywhere to download any software. It looks like to be a cloud mining service where you essentially rent hash rate to mine Bitcoin. However the vast majority of these services are scams (many are just ponzi schemes) or simply unprofitable (why would the owners be renting their hardware away if they could be making more by just mining with their hardware for themselves).</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Now, how on earth is this any different than botting? I'm deeply concerned he fell for a scam, and his computer is simply being botted for malicious intent (e.g. hacking encryption keys, DDOS attacks, etc.)</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Your student himself might have fallen for a scam, but Bitcoin mining in general is very different from botting and is not malicious.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>In fact, the breaking of an encryption key is not very far from the analogy of breaking open a "bitcoin block" with a "hash", or whatever.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>That's just completely wrong and not at all how Bitcoin mining works.</p>
