I have often wondered the same thing. Calculating asteroid paths or scanning the skies for SETI could become much more efficient. Even if we found nothing, that would really be something too. If ASICs are completely useless for this, then screw ASICs then, or use them only for the crypto-part of calculations. To me it just seems silly to have all this excess computing power in the world and not harness it for anything useful. Sure we can calculate these things for free with some screensavers, but do we really tend to do that without any incentive?
I have no idea how would this kind of coin be made, but such coin would without doubt be distinguished itself for it's benefit from the myriad of completely worthless cryptocoins out there
Topic: Design a bitcoin which is more useful (Read 821 times)
Doing this won't work without a way of finding and assigning work, and proving in an easily verifiable way that has been done. This would have to be done in a non-centralized manner, or it completely undermines the principles of Bitcoin. If anyone can submit work to be done, then the system can be gamed by submitting problems with known answers, so other than breaking the system completely by using a centralized work issuer, the only solution I can see would be to undertake an easily partition-able but limitless task which is predefined when the chain is started.
Bitcoin is a great idea but could be improved somhow.
The calculation which are made by miner to earn bitcoins are very random and as far as I know very useless, wouldn't it be possible to take this hashing power (at the moment 83.397 Thash/s) and use it to do DNA sequence analysis or something more useful?
The calculation which are made by miner to earn bitcoins are very random and as far as I know very useless, wouldn't it be possible to take this hashing power (at the moment 83.397 Thash/s) and use it to do DNA sequence analysis or something more useful?
I had the same thought. The way bitcoin works today this isn't possible, however a new generation of virtual currency might be able to do something like this. Basically, coins would be allocated to contracts for certain types of calculations. Those calculations would be paid for by xyz company. The calculations would be broken up into pieces and distributed to workers to calculate and shares would be given based on the amount of work done.
The problem I see with this is that instead of the currency now being self-sufficient, it is now reliant on new contracts to generate new coins and the coins are now backed by an actual currency (because xyz company paid for them). Also, generating new coins wouldn't validate the previous ones.
Well not necesarily, if you have some programm that measures the amount of work you have done (for example for proteinfolding for a non profit organisation) and then gives something like BitCoins (that are free from any contracts) to your wallet.
What could the current round of asics be used for after they are obsolete?
Paperweights.
Bitcoin is a great idea but could be improved somhow.
The calculation which are made by miner to earn bitcoins are very random and as far as I know very useless, wouldn't it be possible to take this hashing power (at the moment 83.397 Thash/s) and use it to do DNA sequence analysis or something more useful?
The calculation which are made by miner to earn bitcoins are very random and as far as I know very useless, wouldn't it be possible to take this hashing power (at the moment 83.397 Thash/s) and use it to do DNA sequence analysis or something more useful?
I had the same thought. The way bitcoin works today this isn't possible, however a new generation of virtual currency might be able to do something like this. Basically, coins would be allocated to contracts for certain types of calculations. Those calculations would be paid for by xyz company. The calculations would be broken up into pieces and distributed to workers to calculate and shares would be given based on the amount of work done.
The problem I see with this is that instead of the currency now being self-sufficient, it is now reliant on new contracts to generate new coins and the coins are now backed by an actual currency (because xyz company paid for them). Also, generating new coins wouldn't validate the previous ones.
What could the current round of asics be used for after they are obsolete?
design asic miner which do not use random numbers to crack the blockchain, use asic miners which use a modified chip which uses specific numbers (algotythms)
Algorithms (e.g. SHA-512) are sets of instructions. Their inputs are numbers. The algorithms themselves are not those numbers, so changing those numbers will not further your goal... unless someone has found an efficient method of converting SHA-512 hashes into useful protein folding information, which I highly doubt.To be overly allegorical:
If I told you (the ASIC) to paint fences (the algorithm) and gave you a bucket of paint to do it with (the "numbers", the input), and you go and paint the fence for me (generate hashes)... what kind of paint would I need to give you so that you end up with a Mercedes (folded protein info) instead of a painted fence (a SHA hash)?
[And the answer is, of course, that I need to tell you to build cars instead of painting fences. I can't do this by changing the paint (the 'numbers') alone]
I would suggest not talking about subjects you don't understand unless you are asking questions.
Think what you just said.
Exactly, design asic miner which do not use random numbers to crack the blockchain, use asic miners which use a modified chip which uses specific numbers (algotythms) to crack the Blockchain.
I would call it smart ASIC miner.
the chance of earning some bitcoins would be exactly the same.
Exactly, design asic miner which do not use random numbers to crack the blockchain, use asic miners which use a modified chip which uses specific numbers (algotythms) to crack the Blockchain.
I would call it smart ASIC miner.
the chance of earning some bitcoins would be exactly the same.
A great deal of that hashing power is ASIC miners, which are specialized to Bitcoin. They can't do anything else and therefore saying they should be doing something more useful is pointless.
Well i guess it would be possible but the thing is to explore new ways of Money. And according to my opinion we need a redisign of Money. Because the strukture of Money is faulty and the cause of many many problems. Although BitCoin cannot solva all Problems many are adressed and so projects like BitCoin are very important. 
I guess it would be possible, but who exactly would decide how is the hashing power used? Who would distribute the data? How and where would the data be collected?
Bitcoin is a great idea but could be improved somhow.
The calculation which are made by miner to earn bitcoins are very random and as far as I know very useless, wouldn't it be possible to take this hashing power (at the moment 83.397 Thash/s) and use it to do DNA sequence analysis or something more useful?
The calculation which are made by miner to earn bitcoins are very random and as far as I know very useless, wouldn't it be possible to take this hashing power (at the moment 83.397 Thash/s) and use it to do DNA sequence analysis or something more useful?
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