So I was thinking about this the other day when I came across this article on Slashdot that points out that GPU prices are high due to the demand for Bitcoin(and other cryptocurrencies) mining.  This got me thinking, what’s the point for this?  What if we could do something useful(well, more useful) than mining for virtual currency?  I’ve been running BOINC for probably about 12+ years now, doing calculations for SETI@Home.  Originally, I wasn’t even using the BOINC client, SETI@Home had their own standalone software that has now been superseded by BOINC.  Which given that the original software was used until 2005, means that I have probably actually been doing this for 15+ years at this point(logging into the SETI website indicates I have been a member since December 2005)…

But I digress.  The question really is, could we mine cryptocurrency as part of the normal BOINC process?  It seems like this would have a number of benefits for people:

• For mining people, they can still mine coins
• For projects on BOINC, they gain computing power from people wanting to mine coins at the same time
• This could result in more computing power for a “good” cause as well, instead of what is(in my mind at least) a rather useless endeavor

I’m not exactly sure how this would work, as I don’t really know anything about blockchain.  Could perhaps Ethereum be used to provide people with “compute credits” that would allow this scheme to work?  It could also provide a good way of storing the calculation results, and have them verifiable.