KEY POINTS

Most of the crypto skeptics think that the entire devotion of mining cryptos is just a terrible waste of energy. The millions of computers tasked to compete for completing a block of transaction work twenty-four hours a day and use up so much energy that it far exceeds the consumption of an average household -- a tradeoff for disseminating a new form of currency.

But as the whole world scrambles for a solution to contain COVID-19, these computers may come in handy in assisting humanity in the war against the virus. On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that there are 1,769 new confirmed cases in the U.S., which brings the total to more than 14,000 with 195 deaths.

Elsewhere, the so-called "curve" hasn't been flattened yet as the pandemic continues to grow in number. Singapore yesterday reported 32 new cases, Saudi Arabia with 36, and the U.A.E. with 17. But what's remarkable is that China, the country that suffered the most in the pandemic, reported no cases yesterday -- and that goes the same for Friday, which is its second straight day of no confirmed cases.

Still, the virus isn't slowing down in other parts of the world, which is why mining computers can probably lend a hand in research. Coindesk reports that about 6,000 Ethereum (ETH) mining computers are being used to seek a cure for the dreadful coronavirus.

The company spearheading the process is CoreWeave, the largest U.S. miner on the Ethereum blockchain. It will be redirecting the computing power of those thousands of computers to Stanford University's Folding@home, which is a project launched on Feb. 27 for boosting the research for the virus.

"Our specialty is in using computer simulations to understand proteins' moving parts. Watching how the atoms in a protein move relative to one another is important because it captures valuable information that is inaccessible by any other means," the post reads," Folding@home blog post stated.

"This is one of the great things about the Ethereum mining ecosystem, it's basically the largest GPU compute resource on the planet. We were able to redeploy our hardware to help fight a global pandemic in minutes," said CoreWeave co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (C.T.O.) Brian Venturo.

Cryptocurrency mining Photo: Getty

Read the original here:

6,000 Ethereum Mining Computers Being Used For Coronavirus Cure Research - International Business Times