Brain Mining: Microsoft Plan To Mine Cryptocurrency With Body Activity Data

What do you think about yourself? Well, Microsoft thinks you're priceless, but in the spirit of The Matrix. In March 2020, Microsoft published a US patent application that describes a cryptocurrency system that uses body activity data for mining.

How is this? According to Microsoft, the human body can be as valuable as the latest ASICs when it comes to mining.

Let's dig in and see what it's all about.

What is brainstorming?

In Bitcoin, computers solve complex puzzles to add new blocks to the blockchain. The ever-increasing complexity ensures that verified transactions are immutable on the block, stored securely and prevents double spending.

As we all know, cryptocurrency mining requires a huge amount of energy. Thus, Microsoft inventors Dustin Abramson, Derrick Fu and Joseph Johnson Jr. came up with a system model that replaces the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism used to mine Bitcoin with something that sounds like something out of science fiction. blockbuster.

A patent application published in March 2020 suggests that bodily activity such as body radiation, the flow of bodily fluids, brain waves or heartbeats could serve as proof of operation in a cryptocurrency system.

The patent states that a task server, such as a service provider, can send a specific task to the cryptocurrency system, such as viewing an advertisement, reading some information or even using an application. When a user completes a task, the body data recorded by the sensors can be used in the mining process as proof of work.

As the task is performed, body activity data such as brain waves, body temperature, blood flow, movements or anything else related to the request is quickly checked and confirmed. If the results are valid and as desired, this means that the task is complete. The data received will be used to confirm transactions and the user will be credited with the system's cryptocurrency.

As we will see, the technology exists to create a cryptocurrency mining system based on your body activity data.

Various devices such as functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) scanners or sensors, electroencephalography (EEG) sensors, near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) sensors, optical sensors, radio frequency (RF) sensors, ultrasound sensors, cameras or even a monitor of heartbeats. from the simplest smart watch can be used to track the necessary data in this system.

But is it safe? How does it really work? Can my dog ​​mine cryptocurrency?

How does it work?

The method proposed by the inventors of Microsoft may seem quite complicated at first glance. So let's try to understand how it works.

Switch off. 1 we have an illustration of the environment that explains how their method will work. We have a task server (110), a communication network (120), a user device (130), a sensor (140), a user (145) and finally a cryptocurrency system (150).

This process may involve multiple task servers, multiple communication networks, and many other user devices, sensors, and users that need to be connected to the cryptocurrency system.

First, a task server can be represented by an application server, a database server, a service provider, etc.

A communication network can be represented by the Internet, radio frequency, Bluetooth, etc.

A user's device can be a laptop, a smartphone, even a server - any gadget that can store and send data.

The sensor can be part of the user's device or a separate accessory that interacts with the device. Body activity data from sensors that can be used in this method are functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanners or sensors, electroencephalography (EEG) sensors, near infrared spectroscopy (NIR) sensors, cameras or heart rate monitors of the heart.

As for the cryptocurrency system, it is represented by a party that processes commands and stores information in one or more cryptocurrency data structures. It can also deliver tasks to the user's device instead of the task server.

The cryptocurrency system may be a third-party company, the same entity as the task server or blockchain.

Diagram fig. Figure 2 shows that a distributed ledger scheme for a decentralized cryptocurrency system typically works with multiple computing resources acting as nodes that interact with each other directly or through a communication network.

In addition, the nodes work with each other to ensure that each is updated. And even if fig. 1, the user device is shown separately from the cryptocurrency system, it can also be integrated into a decentralized network as a computing resource acting as a node.

How will cryptocurrencies be mined?

Now that we understand how the system works, let's continue with FIG. 3 to see how data is actually transferred and how mining actually happens.

The diagram shows the task server sending the submitted task, shown as operation 310 . This can be anything from watching an ad to doing 10 push-ups and solving a CAPTCHA.

The user's device will receive a task and when the user performs the required action, the sensors will track their body. Body activity sensitivity, such as brain activity, body fluid flow, or body movement, will then be sent to the user device as action 320 . The user's device will then process and generate body activity data and send the values ​​to the cryptocurrency system; in the form of a transaction 330. Once the data is sent to the cryptocurrency system, it will be verified to confirm the transactions and the user will be issued the cryptocurrency.

How are assignments checked?

Don't think that advertising your dog is a quick buck. The patent uses a reliable authentication mechanism shown in fig. four.

When the body activity received by the device during operation 320 reaches the device, it will be encoded with a sequence of numbers, letters and symbols indicating the values ​​and other raw data at 410, which will later be encoded as hash values. during operation 420 .

In step 340, the cryptocurrency system determines whether the body activity hash is valid according to one or more rules. Rules can be if the hash value matches a certain pattern, mathematical property, seed count, or if the hash value is less than the actual target value.

PHOTO: 5 further explains that the check function of step 340 means that the hash function sent from the device to operation 330 will be checked to see if it is in the range, then processed and checked to see if the value matches the hash again -in of the original value. After that, only cryptocurrency is credited.

Since it is now quite easy to obtain data on the average performance of the human body, it will be quite easy for a cryptocurrency system to determine whether a hash value is real or not. If the body data sent by the user device matches the statistically defined rules, the data will be reformulated. After re-authentication, the original body activity data will be compared with the hash value sent by the device.

What happens if the hash value doesn't match the rule or the rematch value doesn't match the hash sent by the device?

In this case, the user will not be assigned any cryptocurrency and the task will either be resubmitted via operation 310 or the device will re-collect the detected body activity.

However, if the hash is verified and the cryptocurrency has been split, the hash will be added to the block.

And as fig. 6 , blocks will be added in a typical blockchain manner. Blocks in a series will contain the previous hash of all previous blocks to ensure immutability, as well as information about tasks and rewards.

Main conclusions

• In March 2020, Microsoft published a US patent application that describes a cryptocurrency system that uses body activity data for mining. The design proposed in the patent was proposed by Dustin Abramson, Derrick Fu and Joseph Johnson Jr.
• The model described in the patent proposes an approach that replaces the large computing and energy resources required for PoW mining by using body activity data to validate transactions.
• The implementation of this methodology is possible due to the availability of modern biometric sensors that can track body activity data, from brain waves to heart rate and more.
• The model assumes that the task given by the service can be performed by the user, who can confirm the performance of the action with the help of sensors. The data received from the sensors is processed by the user's device, which encodes it and sends cryptocurrency to the system.
• Encrypted body activity data is sent along with its hash value, which is then checked against predefined rules that can statistically determine the characteristics of the human body. Verified data is used to verify transactions on the blockchain.

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