Ping21 looks like the simplest possible example of grid-based computation.
Modern devices don’t only require some funds for their maintenance and smooth operation – indeed they can earn money for you! Now we are talking about the way your devices can fill up your bitcoin supplies.
The first way is familiar to all people who know what bitcoin is – embedded mining. Each 21 Bitcoin Computer can be updated with the mining chip that sends a valuable service up to the network (hashing) and get a stream of bitcoin in return. Thus it enables turning electricity into bitcoin.
The concept of a bitcoin-payable API takes the possibility to earn the cryptocurrency to the new higher level. Besides mining, computers can offer additional services over the network to make profit. These services can turn up to become either more gainful, or more secure than mining.
There is one simple ping service called ping21, launched by 21 Inc. Its operating principle is thoroughly described by Medium: “In ping21 a client (the buyer) sends an aggregator (in this case, the 21 Marketplace) an IP address and some bitcoin in exchange for distributed ping statistics from an aggregated network of small ping21 servers.
Each server is thus monetizing its relatively distinct IP, earning bitcoin by offering a useful service over the Internet. That bears repeating: the individual servers are offering a service over the Internet to earn bitcoin, but this service is not bitcoin mining!”
The time will show how profitable services like ping21 are. But indeed, what can be easier than renting a group of computers over the internet for bitcoin and orchestrating them to perform a useful action. Of course, you can accomplish the same task independently, without the help of ping21.
You can rent servers in the cloud but the servers will have internet connections and uptime characteristics that are likely quite different from the apartments and houses of your customers.
Thus, you will most likely need to rent machines over the grid — the heterogeneous network of machines in homes and offices. The grid and the cloud provide complementary measurements. Thus after all, ping21 looks like the simplest possible example of this kind of grid-based computation.
The world’s largest funded company in bitcoin, 21 Inc., believes in great future to Bitcoin comparing its development with open-source software Linux – it isn’t well-known by consumers but serves as a basis for the Android mobile-operating system and some other key pieces of technology.
Balaji Srinivasan, company’s CEO, once said “What happened is Linux won but by stealth. In the same way, I think that a lot of people are going to be using bitcoin without realizing they’re using bitcoin.”
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