A few projects are underway to try to harness the vast amount of computing power that is pulled together for the mining of cryptocoins. Some, such as the researchers behind Permacoin, are looking at ways to enable data storage.

Others, such as the folks at DoABitOfGood.com, see an opportunity for charitable donation.

Do A Bit of Good has thus created a screensaver that allows users to mine Bitcoins with their idle processing power. To bring attention to their service, and to get some money flowing, the organization is launching a crowdfunding campaign.

And they’re giving away a whole bunch of Givecoins in the process.



At noon CDT (-5 GMT) on Friday, Do A Bit of Good is launching the campaign on StartSomeGood.com to raise awareness about their project, get some coins in donors’ hands and maybe raise some funds of their own. Everyone who donates to the campaign will get Givecoins in return. All in all, 200,000 Givecoins are earmarked for the giveaway.

“I really believe that we have the ability to bring about a ‘virtuous cycle’ in charitable-giving,” said A Bit of Good Executive Director David V Duccini, who also added:

“The big plan is to establish a relationship with a licensed payment processor so that ‘underwriters’ can buy our non-profit and pro-social causes coins directly for cash, and in return they donate those coins to another cause! Think about what that does in terms of karma!”

He said his organization was working to establish a relationship with a licensed payment processor that would allow campaigns to sell and auction off coins within their system. (Later on, there might even be some colored coin applications, too.)

The screensaver


The campaign/giveaway’s ultimate purpose, though, is to get people to download A Bit of Good’s screensaver, which harnesses each end user’s idle computing power to mine Bitcoins. Users can choose for themselves to which charities they would like to donate their mined coins.

Duccini said the final version of the project’s explanatory video was just cut. You can see it below:

DoABitOfGood Final from HowitworksMedia on Vimeo.