Mineful — The Sharing Economy Meets Cryptocurrency Mining
Mineful is on a mission to bring mining to the masses. The team at Mineful has set out on this journey, to start removing the barriers for the average person to participate in the next form of the sharing economy — cryptocurrency mining. We will dive deeper into what mining is and why it’s needed for the blockchain a bit later, but for now, let’s quickly chat about some existing sharing economies.
It’s safe to assume by now that everyone is familiar with Airbnb and Uber. These are two examples of companies that have built a service on top of a sharing economy. These businesses rely on the fact that there is enough supply of an asset like a room or car that it can match the supply with the demand from those that require the service. If only a marketplace were to exist, those with the asset could generate a profit and others enjoy the convenience of these services. And indeed these marketplaces began to form in 2008–2009 when Airbnb and Uber were founded.
When you have a transaction between two private individuals, unlike staying at a hotel or riding in a taxi, the individuals in the transaction must have some level of trust. And thus, these types of marketplaces first goal is to build trust. Similar to eBay’s explosion in popularity as a result of buyer and seller feedback and reviews, the trust between the asset owner and the individual seeking to use the asset is a critical piece to ensuring the success of these new marketplaces. Both Uber and Airbnb have designed a rating systems and safety protocol that gives users on both sides a level of trust.
“individuals in the transaction must have some level of trust.”
Additionally, these sharing economy platforms deliver upon a basic economic principle, supply and demand, seamlessly and with the full confidence of the users: the users trust the price, they trust the quality, because quite frankly, everything is out in the open. Reviews, ratings, thorough descriptions and photos, all provide a complete overview of what you’re signing up for.
Drivers & Apartment Owners = Supply
Riders & Guests = Demand
Within this model, the ability to adjust pricing in real time creates opportunities for both buyers and sellers. This remains valid with respect to cryptocurrency mining, because as more miners look to solve problems in hopes of rewards, the more difficult the probability of winning the block reward.
How does Mineful build on top of the sharing economy?
Mineful has developed a technology and platform that connects an individual’s desktop or laptop computer to a growing demand and need of the blockchain, something called hash power.
First, on the supply side, we have users who own increasingly more powerful computers. These computers are equipped with CPU and GPU processing power that continue to improve due to Moore’s Law, mainly for the high demand of games and video. However, this computing power serves another potential, profitable purpose — hash power required for cryptocurrency mining.
Mining is the process by which transactions are verified and added to a blockchain. The mining process involves compiling recent transactions into blocks and trying to solve a computationally difficult puzzle. By participating in mining, individuals will be rewarded cryptocurrency in exchange for their computing or hash power. This is where Mineful has taken a complicated task, (e.g. setting up mining software, joining a pool, creating a wallet, exchanging the awarded cryptocurrency) and made it turnkey for the end-user. In our model, a user will share their computing power but in lieu of cryptocurrency as their reward, they will earn toward subscriptions, in-app or in-game purchases or premium content. In short, Mineful has developed a way for users to share spare computer power in exchange for premium subscriptions or in-game credits like Fortnite VBucks.
“This is where Mineful has taken a complicated task, (e.g. setting up mining software, joining a pool, creating a wallet, exchanging the awarded cryptocurrency) and made it turnkey for the end-user.”
As discussed above, we have supply (users with excess computer power) and demand (a growing need for computing resources to power to the blockchain). The blockchain needs hash power, much like people need rides or a place to stay when traveling. Similarly, riders and guests have alternatives, such as a taxi or a hotel room, the blockchain currently gets its computer power from a handful of “Hobby Miners”. Individuals who design, build and deploy ‘rigs’ which are basically CPUs or GPUs stacked and optimized for cooling and power consumption. There are thousands of these hobby miners. These individuals love the cryptocurrency they are mining. They understand the hardware and software required. They chat on Telegram, Discord and Slack among each other sharing “tricks of the trade” while anxiously waiting for a Green Block (a block reward is when a pool is rewarded the set number of cryptocurrency tokens…in other words…pay day.)
In contrast, there are millions of computers not mining. And millions of individuals who have very little knowledge about their own hardware and much less about how to use it to mine cryptocurrency. However, these individuals are connected by two things, which are both foundational to mining. The access to power and the Internet.
And the question remains, how can we bring them together to mine toward content and services we all love and need? How can Mineful deliver a platform that is built on trust and deliver value to the asset owner and fill the demanding needs of the blockchain, all while driving value to its partners?
How does Mineful build trust?
Mineful’s first priority when designing its product was a strong set of UX and Transparency guidelines, that all partners must follow. We believe that in today’s society, it’s important that users understand the software they are downloading and information they are giving someone access to. That’s why we believe in all users providing informed consent before opting into any Mineful product.
Users need to understand that by sharing their excess CPU or GPU power, they are doing so with a good actor and not someone who is simply trying to access their personal data. Most users will be initially exposed to Mineful through an already trusted app or game they use every day. That app or game may ask the user if they want to upgrade their account subscription via Mineful as opposed to paying $2.99 per month with their credit card. Or potentially to buy in-app purchase for $0.99 via iTunes. Mineful will make micro-payments more seamless than ever before. We will not require a credit card or personal information. Users will simply allow our technology to gain access to their computer’s resources, not their files, webcam, or cloud data. Most importantly, users will have full control of the miner (e.g. throttle the miner up and down, turn it on or off, and set a period of time for it to run each day).
Naturally, as more and more 3rd party apps and games adopt Mineful as an alternative payment mechanism, greater trust will be built. During this growth process, our number one priority, our foundation of this business, will remain the fostering of trust. We will focus heavily on delivering an easy, user-friendly interface and clear messaging to help drive more general consumer adoption. These principles are no different than what we’ve seen Uber or Airbnb deliver their users.
Will Mineful generate greater demand from the blockchain?
As the supply side continues to grow with greater adoption from companies with large networks and user bases, Mineful will be focused on delivering cutting edge performance to blockchains that require its hashing power. Similar to Airbnb and Uber investing a huge amount of their capital into their driver partners and room hosts, Mineful’s competitive advantage will be in its aggregated network hash rate that is invaluable to the ever increasing number of blockchains. Even prior to launching, Mineful has been approached by several projects that require a network of miners to power their blockchain. We see this as a very bullish sign of what we’re creating. The entire team at Mineful is extremely excited to be part of the existing Blockchain revolution and look forward to the continuous innovation throughout the community.
Are you a developer looking for new ways to engage your audience or looking for alternative ways to charge users for your premium content? Are you a frequent user of desktop apps or a PC gamer and would love to see Mineful as a new way to pay?
