Bitcoin Mining Could Revolutionize Grid Computing and Unconventional Computing

Abstract

Volunteer computing became popular during the late 1990s with software like SETI@home. In the early days of bitcoin mining, CPUs and GPUs were used similarly to volunteer computing: spare computing cycles are used to solve a problem (securing a blockchain in the case of cryptocurrency mining). Then came the specialized hardware of FPGAs and ASICs, and using CPUs and GPUs for bitcoin mining was not profitable anymore. We argue that bitcoin mining has revolutionized the development of specialized hardware and could continue doing so in the industry of unconventional computing. There is also a significant source of unused spare computing cycles in home computers and smartphones that could be used for grid computing purposes with the help of cryptocurrency mining. The notable result from our present analysis is the connection between cryptocurrency mining, grid/volunteer computing, and unconventional computing.