Razer involves players in blockchain 'mining & # 39; through the partnership with Gamma

Luxury gaming PC and peripheral producer Razer Inc. joins Gamma Innovations Inc. to connect players to blockchain technology allowing them to "extract" and gain gift-worthy rewards for the computer.

The software, SoftMiner, is part of a joint announcement published on Wednesday by the two companies that will be integrated directly into the Razer software suite.

Once installed, the software silently runs in the background and uses the graphics card on the user's computer to solve complex mathematical problems in a process called "mining" used to protect distributed blocker blockchain technology.

This task is extremely demanding from the point of view of calculation and requires a great deal of power. In the cryptocurrency sector, which relies heavily on token blockchain technology like bitcoin and Ethereum, computer clusters that use multiple video cards are used. The mining activity acts to make the blockchain ledgers tamper-proof by cryptographically linking each new block of transactions to the one previously added.

Because mining would interfere with gaming – in itself an intensive task for a computer – the SoftMiner program stops working when it detects mouse movement.

"Razer's software and services are integral parts of our player-centric ecosystem and complement our fans' lifestyle promise," said Razer Min-Liang Tan's co-founder and CEO. The company serves over 50 million registered users, who can now download the data mining software.

Although mining blockchain can cause cryptocurrency, neither users nor Razers receive it. Instead, the work of SoftMiner software goes entirely to the Gamma services. To encourage players to run the software, Razer rewards players with Razer Silver, a company token that can be redeemed for tools at the Razer Store.

"More and more of our original vision is becoming a blockchain world and games are naturally joining," said Gamma's CEO Gabriel Schillinger in a statement. "SoftMiner is the best way for members of the Razer community to contribute with their calculation when they are not in use and get fantastic rewards in return."

Gamma's SoftMiner software will currently be used to protect blockchains, but the company plans to expand its services to include scientific computing and distributed rendering. An example of a scientific computing project that uses distributed computing includes the famous SETI @ Home project, in which volunteer computer users run cycles of processors to help search for extraterrestrial information at the University of California in Berekley by examining the model radio telescope data.

Although players may be happy to allow their computers to help them get devices and devices while they are not playing, Razer has already received some criticism for working with a cryptocurrency mining software company.

Scott Chicken user on Twitter commented, "Just to confirm the execution at full speed, every single day throughout the day it takes 560 days to earn a Razer keyboard, worth £ 199 ($ ​​250) as of their website. means that you make a maximum of £ 0.35 ($ 0.44) per day for full-scale mining. "

Unfortunately, added Chicken, this would also be impossible because the silver earned from mining activities expires after 12 months, or 360 days, well below the 560 days estimate.

Users of the mining software would also put their gaming platforms at risk with the extra processing power used constantly. Although the software does not work at "full power", it increases the stress on components that could reduce the life of a computer's components.

Even the execution of the software is not completely free for users: Blockchain mining is energy-intensive because it requires the use of chips to draw more power from the calculations. This would certainly add to the user's electric bill and, depending on how much it costs at home, it could be more expensive than the premiums offered by Razer.

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