The amount of computing power used to secure and process the Bitcoin network is collosal. Many people argue that the problem with bitcoins is that there is nothing really backing it up in terms of production. Something that I have wondered since well before i started mining was if bitcoin mining and something like folding at home could be combined. This would add value behind bitcoins in terms of something tangible and the processing power could go towards more good.
This would mean virtually unlmited rendering power to those wishing to look at protein molecules and other computational heavy tasks. If some group could rent out the bitcoin blockchain for some blocks for their own computational needs then people would start to feel a lot better about bitcoins in general. Obviously it would have to be controlled what could be processed in order to prevent turning bitcoins into a giant hacking machine and I don't know how we could achieve this. The bitcoin network in a sense operates like a supercomputer and could be "rented" out for a much lower cost than im sure it costs to build and maintain them.
I would like to see bitcoins head in this direction but currently I do not see how we would go about this. Of course they could just pay for folding at home but that I do not see that happening in the near future. At the very least with bitcoins at a higher price it would give them some incentive to do so.
Maybe this is just the idealist in me speaking but can anyone else think of a way we could make this happen?
