As developers keep coming up with new and astonishing waysto apply cryptocurrency technology to problem-solving, scientists at StanfordUniversity are using the power of computing and the fame of Bitcoin to researchcures for cancer and other diseases.
CureCoin, a new project sponsored by Stanford’s Pande Labsthat combines coin mining with protein folding for scientific research,launched earlier this month.
Like other digital currencies, CureCoin accrues networksecurity from hashing, with miners earning coins in the process.
Unlike other digital currencies, mining is not the only wayto earn coins – you can also set your computer to the task of folding proteinswhile you do other things, like check Facebookor play Doge games.
The coins are valuable both as 1) a currency, and 2) anexchangeable representation of scientific and medical research. Each coin growsin value as more people contribute and proteins are folded.