Microsoft and cryptocurrency - how does that fit together? In the wake of the hype about Bitcoin and Co. from 2018, a lot of companies have dealt with blockchain and other technologies.
Microsoft, like Bosch and Volkswagen, entered into a partnership with the crypto company IOTA at the end of 2017 in order to use its capabilities in the IoT area. Microsoft and crypto are not completely alien to each other.
Now we have discovered documents that confirm Redmond's own development in this area. The Bitcoin alternative is described in detail and has an innovative type of mining.
Microsoft cryptocurrency - sports money?
For everyone who is not familiar with the topic of mining, here is a small explanation of the process:
A blockchain is a data structure that stores a list of transactions and can be thought of as a distributed electronic ledger that records transactions between the source and destination identifier (s). The transactions are bundled in blocks, and each block (except the first block) references or is linked to an earlier block in the blockchain. Computer resources (or nodes, etc.) maintain the blockchain and cryptographically validate each new block and the transactions contained in the corresponding block. This validation process involves the computational solution to a difficult problem that is also easy to verify and is sometimes referred to as “proof-of-work”. This process is known as "mining". Mining can be a random, low-probability process so a lot of trial and error is required to solve a computationally difficult problem. Accordingly, mining can require enormous amounts of computing power.
Microsoft has developed a method to perform mining through physical activity (e.g. sports):
Human body activity associated with a task provided to a user can be used in the mining process of a cryptocurrency system. A server can provide a device of a user with a task that is communicatively coupled to the server. A sensor that is communicatively coupled to or contained in the user's device can detect the user's body activity. Body activity data can be generated based on the user's perceived body activity. The cryptocurrency system communicatively coupled to the device of the user can check whether the body activity data meets one or more conditions defined by the cryptocurrency system and the user whose body activity data is checked,
The movements of the user could be captured by the smartphone or a smartwatch and then converted into crypto accordingly. You'd make money running. This incentive would open up a completely new motivation in the sports sector.
ystems, methods, and hardware aspects of computer-readable storage media are provided here for a cryptocurrency system that uses data about human body activity. According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, a server can provide a user's device with a task that is communicatively coupled to the server. A sensor that is communicatively coupled to or contained in the user's device can detect the user's body activity. Body activity data can be generated based on the user's perceived body activity. A cryptocurrency system communicatively coupled to the user's device can verify that the body activity data meets one or more conditions set by the cryptocurrency system, and the user,
As always with patents, none of this has to be implemented in the form of a real product.
The concept is exciting and it would also fit very well with other innovative financial products that have recently entered the various app stores (e.g. Peaks, an app with which you can invest your change in stocks).
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