The rise of the cryptocurrency industry has brought with it an array of new coins for investors to peruse, including the ECO coin, one that rewards people for sustainable actions. Moreover, people are investigating in eco-friendly cryptocurrency mining methods.
The accomplishment of a team of developers from a company behind a cryptocurrency called Burst is yet another example of how people are figuring out creative and Earth-friendly ways to engage with cryptocurrencies. They say they’ve carried out a cryptocurrency transaction with solar power and used short-wave radios and blockchain technology to do it.
This is not the first time people have handled a cryptocurrency transaction through radio communications. However, the team behind this experiment assert that it’s the first completely off-grid transaction of that type.
Accomplished With Easily Acquired Equipment
People might understandably think that such a feat would need advanced equipment that’s not readily available. However, the team from Burst insists that’s not the case. They say they only needed a solar battery pack, a short-wave radio and a portable hard drive in terms of tech equipment. The rest of this achievement happened because the people working on it had the knowledge needed to pull it off.
Additionally, Burst is an open-source cryptocurrency, and the developers recorded their solar-powered transaction on the Burst blockchain without data connections or mains power sources.
Daniel Jones, one of the developers involved in the process, posted a picture on Twitter showing the straightforward setup, which might make other people eager to try to replicate it. It’s necessary to clarify, though, that sending cryptocurrencies around the world with that method requires having a license to operate a short-wave radio.
Substantial Long-Term Implications
The ability to use an off-grid approach for cryptocurrency transactions is remarkable in itself, but it’s the technology and technique that could have a much wider reach.
Being able to send and receive digital information to or from anywhere in the world in a secure and unchangeable manner has numerous applications. Some of them could help the victims of disasters, for instance. The system could verify “proof of life,” allowing for identity verification without physically seeing a person.
Although those identity verification methods would have to be in place first, people might eventually use this solar-powered transmission method to communicate with loved ones and assure them that they’ve survived catastrophic events. That contact would be possible even if all other ways to communicate weren’t functioning after a disastrous event.
Using Cryptocurrency for Good
The developer’s project is a submission for something known as the Call for Code Challenge. It puts tech-savvy people — primarily developers — head to head and tasks them with creating technology that either helps people get ready for natural disasters or helps them recover.
This work is the inaugural event of its kind, and it seems there will be different goals every year. This first edition focuses on disaster relief. Considering the most recent destruction of parts of the East Coast from Hurricane Florence, as well as the devastation caused last year and the years before, it seems there’s no better time than now for such technology.
The Potential to Give Projects Long-Term Backing
Another notable thing about the Call for Code Challenge is that the main winners, from the team receiving the grand prize to the fourth runner-up, get long-term project support from The Linux Foundation. Substantial cash prizes — including $200,000 for the grand prize winner — will be given out. As such, the people who take part in the challenge will get visibility and resources.
Reshaping Perspectives
Although the projects within the Call for Code Challenge are not just related to the blockchain and cryptocurrency, it’s easy to see how taking part in this competition could expand people’s expectations about what both of them could do.
For example, many people think of cryptocurrency only as an investment and believe that blockchain is something cryptocurrency needs to function. Those things are true, but the potential for both of them is much greater.
The wider world doesn’t know that yet, but people could continually push the boundaries of the technologies and what they can do. If that happens, society at large could finally see that cryptocurrencies and the blockchain are not going away — they both could forever change the way people operate in the world.
In short, the use of cryptocurrency technology for good paves the way for a brighter future that helps people all around the world — even those who never invest in cryptocurrencies.
Kayla writes about cryptocurrency, blockchain and technology in general. Her work has been featured on The Week, The Daily Dot, Cointelegraph and Bitcoin Magazine. To read more posts by Kayla, please visit her blog: https://productivitybytes.com
