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>>> an age in which 2 of the 5 largest tech firms in the US earn 90% of revenue by selling advertising I feel as if we are right on the cusp of alternatives to

>>> an age in which 2 of the 5 largest tech firms in the US earn 90% of revenue by selling advertising I feel as if we are right on the cusp of alternatives to ad-sponsered free internet. Web Crypto Mining being one of the more obvious methods to harvest spare compute cycles of peer meshes.

ben_w 6y ago
One thing I’ve never ever understood about crypto mining is: why it can’t do something productive with all the CPU cycles, instead of just finding inputs to hash functions such that they give round-number outputs? Like running quantum chemistry simulations to find new superconductors or treatments for illnesses? It’s not like cloud computing is a zero-cost resource, and things like SETI@home predate Bitcoin.
- r721 6y ago
  There exist some efforts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primecoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primecoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gridcoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gridcoin https://gridcoin.us/wiki/faq.html https://gridcoin.us/wiki/faq.html
- TeMPOraL 6y ago
  Somebody else will need to fill in details, but I do recall reading there's a general argument that if your proof-of-work compute provides something else of value as a side effect (e.g. "quantum chemistry simulations"), it stops being a good proof-of-work scheme. I can also imagine that anything non-random is vulnerable to a discovery of a more efficient method of computing the same thing, and the first person to exploit such a method could take over the chain.
  - rabuse 6y ago
    This is correct. Without the brute-forcing nature of finding a solution for a block, it becomes trivial to game. There may be a hybrid approach to it (PoS), but they haven't proven themselves yet in a large scale.
- Zippogriff 6y ago
  Anything that operates on proof-of-work like Bitcoin does will need a valuable operation that 1) can have its difficulty tuned up or down, 2) has a result that's quick to precisely verify, and (I suppose) 3) the result of which is less valuable than the coins it will yield. Oh and you'd want it to be basically the same operation at least for long periods of time, if not indefinitely. That narrows down what you can do with it quite a bit. [EDIT] oh AND it has to prove you were performing the operation with the current block in hand. No running ahead with the calculations then hashing it with the block when you get it, or anything like that. You mustn't be able to even start until you have the block.
PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago
IIUC, you're suggesting that the alternative to an ad-sponsored "free" internet is selling spare cycles on your computing devices instead of being shown ads?

ben_w 6y ago

One thing I’ve never ever understood about crypto mining is: why it can’t do something productive with all the CPU cycles, instead of just finding inputs to hash functions such that they give round-number outputs? Like running quantum chemistry simulations to find new superconductors or treatments for illnesses? It’s not like cloud computing is a zero-cost resource, and things like SETI@home predate Bitcoin.

r721 6y ago
There exist some efforts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primecoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primecoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gridcoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gridcoin https://gridcoin.us/wiki/faq.html https://gridcoin.us/wiki/faq.html
TeMPOraL 6y ago
Somebody else will need to fill in details, but I do recall reading there's a general argument that if your proof-of-work compute provides something else of value as a side effect (e.g. "quantum chemistry simulations"), it stops being a good proof-of-work scheme. I can also imagine that anything non-random is vulnerable to a discovery of a more efficient method of computing the same thing, and the first person to exploit such a method could take over the chain.
- rabuse 6y ago
  This is correct. Without the brute-forcing nature of finding a solution for a block, it becomes trivial to game. There may be a hybrid approach to it (PoS), but they haven't proven themselves yet in a large scale.
Zippogriff 6y ago
Anything that operates on proof-of-work like Bitcoin does will need a valuable operation that 1) can have its difficulty tuned up or down, 2) has a result that's quick to precisely verify, and (I suppose) 3) the result of which is less valuable than the coins it will yield. Oh and you'd want it to be basically the same operation at least for long periods of time, if not indefinitely. That narrows down what you can do with it quite a bit. [EDIT] oh AND it has to prove you were performing the operation with the current block in hand. No running ahead with the calculations then hashing it with the block when you get it, or anything like that. You mustn't be able to even start until you have the block.

PaulDavisThe1st 6y ago

IIUC, you're suggesting that the alternative to an ad-sponsored "free" internet is selling spare cycles on your computing devices instead of being shown ads?