Microsoft patents the new cryptocurrency system using body activity data

Microsoft has patented a cryptocurrency mining system that leverages human activities, including brain waves and body heat, while performing online activities such as using search engines, chatbots, and reading ads. “A user can subconsciously solve the computationally difficult problem,” the patent reads.

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Cryptographic system that exploits data on the activity of the body

Microsoft Technology Licensing, the licensing arm of Microsoft Corp., has obtained an international patent for a “cryptocurrency system that uses bodily activity data”. The patent was published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on March 26. The application was filed on June 20 last year. “The human body activity associated with an activity provided to a user can be used in a mining process of a cryptocurrency system,” reads the patent, adding as an example:

A brain wave or body heat emitted by the user when the user performs the activity provided by an information or service provider, such as displaying advertisements or using certain Internet services, may be used in the process of mining.

Noting that the described method can “reduce the computational energy for the extraction process and make the extraction process faster”, the patent details:

For example, instead of the massive computational work required by some conventional cryptocurrency systems, the data generated based on the user’s bodily activity can be proof of work, and thus, a user can unconsciously solve the difficult problem from the point of computational view.

The patent suggests an alternative way to mine cryptocurrencies

The patent describes a system in which a device can check whether “the body activity data meets one or more conditions set by the cryptocurrency system and assign the cryptocurrency to the user whose body activity data is verified.”

Different types of sensors can be used to “measure or detect body activity or scan the human body,” explains the patent. They include “functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanners or sensors, electroencephalography (EEG) sensors, near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) sensors, heart rate monitors, thermal sensors, optical sensors, radio frequency (RF) sensors, ultrasound sensors, cameras , or any other sensor or scanner ”that will do the same job.

The system can reward cryptocurrency to an owner or operator “for providing services, such as search engines, chatbots, applications or websites, by offering users free access to paid content (such as streaming video and audio or electrical books), or sharing information or data with users, “the details of the patent.

The idea of ​​mining cryptocurrencies using human body heat has previously been explored by other organizations. For example, Manuel Beltrán, founder of the Dutch Institute of Human Obsolescence, organized an experiment in 2018 to mine cryptocurrencies with a special body that collected human body heat into a sustainable energy source. The electricity generated was then sent to a computer to mine cryptocurrencies.

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