By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
Innovative blockchain platform Module enables its users monetize unused storage on their smartphones and tablets, do smart contracts, develop apps and get paid.
If Module CEO Toshiki Tashiro is right, then whatever you do, don’t throw away your old smartphone. Instead, empty it of everything data-sucking and use it to mine cryptocurrency.
According to Japan’s Ministry of Communications, 94.7% of people there have a smartphone. The situation is similar in other developed countries. In developing countries, the percentage of smartphone users has dramatically increased and even reached 80.8% in many African countries, where the percentage of people walking around with a cell phone is the lowest.
Large amounts of unused storage sit on these phones. “There’s about 2 billion mobile devices used all over the world and if we assume that there is a huge amount of unused storage, then there is a surplus of this storage and we can use it to mine cryptocurrency,” says Module’s Tashiro.
Module assumes that the storage capacity of a typical smartphone is 32 GB. The usage rate of storage is 50%. If correct, there is extra storage capacity of about 15 billion GB. “If you use Module, phones and data that have not been used or were ‘sleeping’ can be turned into a real asset,” says Toshiro.
Users of the service will be paid in Module tokens, which can be exchanged for Bitcoin and later for fiat. But the main idea is to make Module a new BTC and ETH, said someone involved in the project who could not be quoted on the record. The beta version of their smartphone mining application will be distributed to users who then get Module tokens (MODL), the company said on their Telegram chat.
“You get two things with Module,” says Nick Evdokimov, founder of ICO Box and an advisor to the company. “First, you get to put unused storage on your smartphone and tablet to use for rewards. Second, Module lets the users do smart contracts, develop apps and get paid.”
Compensation is determined based on three elements of storage: space, time, and transaction. Their Proof of Space, Time and Transaction protocol creates a decentralized storage network with its own coins provided by peer-to-peer cloud storage. Clients will use the tokens for storing and transmitting data, and miners will mine the coins used to rent storage space, and for other services.
Users need to install the Module application on their device to be part of the system. Users then are asked to specify how much memory they are willing to rent out on the blockchain. Encrypted datablocks are then stored on the device. Users are paid in Module tokens.
Potential customers are companies willing to put data on a decentralized and encrypted blockchain platform. Their data is stored cheaper than in traditional corporate cloud systems.
Data storage is gaining traction namely among ICO enthusiasts. New companies are emerging. One data storage token project raised $200 million (about 22 billion yen) in an hour. The best known startups in the game so far are Storj, Sia and Filecoin. Unlike the other two, Filecoin is still in its early development stages. Each one wants to harness the power of decentralization to rival the services provided by the dedicated servers and create a market for people to rent their unused storage space.
Module’s new blockchain-powered algorithm lets developers create decentralized applications and issue new currencies on it, making it different than Filecoin. The company said in its white paper that it expects to bring new entrants to the cryptocurrency mining market, as well.
“In our future, not only people living in developed countries will have the opportunity to participate in mining,” says Toshiro in the company’s white paper. “We hope to have many people in underdeveloped countries acting as miners and receiving rewards in Module tokens. For many people in developed countries, mining that brings in only one dollar a day may be meaningless, but we believe that this can change the life of people in poorer countries.”
Module started its public pre-sale on July 16. Being hard capped at $18M, the event ends on July 31. Early contributors can get generous 7% bonus when purchasing minimum of 1 Module token at the rate 0.008 USD. Participants of the Crowdsale, which is scheduled to take place from August 1 to August 15, 2018, are entitled to 2% bonus.