How to mine cryptocurrency and save the planet

Now, a new cryptocurrency wants to try to upend that trend and use mining to make the world a better place. Or at least a cleaner one.

"It'll be mined by real-world actions," Brooklyn-based Emrals creator Sean Auriti told Motherboard. More specifically, it can be mined by throwing garbagein a public trash can. Sounds like a no-brainer, but you'll have to give up some personal details to achieve this.

The WiFi enabled ECanof which there are three so faris fitted with an infrared sensor so it knows when trash is thrown in, and there's a screen for the public to type in their information. The attraction of currencies like Bitcoin is partially their anonymity. With Emrals, the point is more about earning by making the world a nicer place; it's about community rather than anonymity.

The whole thing cost around $380 (223) to make, using a Raspberry Pi, solar panels, batteries and a touchscreen. It can be synced up with an app Auriti is in the process of making, which will encourage users to take photos of trash they see lying around on the streets and put a value on it for other miners to scrape up. It's a nice way of spreading the word, but it means the photographer will be taking photos of trash rather than cleaning it up. A little odd, but if you don't want to get your hands dirty, at least you're spreading the word.

You can see on the Emrals sitewhich very much has the look of a gaming site, with fairytale-esque font that completes a Wizard Of Oz feelsome of the very first geotagged "dirt alert" photos, presumably taken by Auriti himself.

In terms of how you actually monetize your Emrals, Auriti is considering real cash exchanges or citywide discounts, meaning that brands could potentially get involved.

Auriti tells Motherboardthat he wants to take the ECan global, but for now, a few New York street corners might start looking an awful lot cleaner.

It's hardly the first time we've seen a WiFi enabled trash can. We are, of course, living in the future. We've seen trash cansthat listen to phone broadcasts in order to tell the public if buses and bars are full (Presence Orb)and ones that celebrate you throwing ina cigarette butt with a light and sound show. ECan picks up where the latter left off, in its merging of using engaging entertainment to encourage you to be a better person. Whether you'd want to provide your personal details on the touchscreen in order to gain the full benefits, though, is another matter. We could see one day having fitness tracker-style social media alerts telling your friends that you're doing your part to clean up the city. But unless that data is proven to be secure and useful, it's unlikely the public would give it away in the street.

This story originally appeared on Wired UK.

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How to mine cryptocurrency and save the planet