On March 26th, Microsoft Technology Licensing was granted an international patent for “Cryptocurrency System Using Body Activity Data”. This patent was approved by WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization.
First filed in June 20th 2019, the application is said to take, “human body activity associated with a task provided to a user may be used in a mining process of a cryptocurrency system.”
Although this is a work in progress, the summary of the patent included this note:
“A brain wave or body heat emitted from the user when the user performs the task provided by an information or service provider, such as viewing advertisement or using certain internet services, can be used in the mining process. Instead of massive computation work required by some conventional cryptocurrency systems, data generated based on the body activity of the user can be a proof-of-work, and therefore, a user can solve the computationally difficult problem unconsciously.”
Not the first to use humans for mining
In the past, a Netherland-based technology company called Speculative.Capital have been working on a project, that explored the possibility of using the human body to create energy. They used the bodies heat and turned it into electricity.
They used these thermoelectric generators that harvested the temperature on the bodies which where used as mining rigs. They managed to get a total of 212 hours of power, which allowed them to unlock 16,594 coins, in Vertcoin, StartCOIN, Dash, Lisk, Litecoin and Ethereum.