If we are to consider the destructive capabilities of the extreme weather that we have faced in the past months, it is probably safe to say that the climate change has become a life-threatening issue, and we cannot afford to ignore it any longer.
Pollution is slowly increasing the number of deaths caused by heart and respiratory diseases, it is destroying entire ecosystems, and may soon threaten our very existence as a species.
Luckily, we do have the tools to shift the odds in our favor. The technologies that we have, or are currently developing are sufficient to stabilize the climate and improve the quality of the air.
Julian Oliver has come up with a way to use wind energy in order to mine cryptocurrency which is then used in order to fund climate research projects.
The system is called “HARVEST”, and it uses wind-energy in order to mine cryptocurrency. The profits are then used in order to fund climate-change research projects. HARVEST uses a 2-meter wind turbine equipped with environmental sensors, a weatherproof computer, and a 4G uplink, in order to turn wind energy into the electricity used to run the computer that uncovers Zcash (the chosen cryptocurrency of the creator).
As a reminder, “mining” or “uncovering” cryptocurrency is the process through which computers are financially rewarded for helping process a public transaction ledger known as a “blockchain”. Every time a computer processes a section of it (a block), it receives virtual currency which can then be exchanged for real money.
HARVEST was commissioned by the Konstmuseet i Skövde exhibition. The event is set to run for two months, starting on the 14th of September 2017. All data relevant to the mining process will be projected during the exhibition.
The creator hopes that he will inspire other individuals to design similar systems, and considered HARVEST a potential prototype, in this regard. He has stated that devices such as the one that he created could be used in order to supplement the funding of climate-change oriented NGOs.
