Pets are the light of your life, though they can be draining—especially on your bank account. But what if pets mining crypto at home, while you’re at work, were possible? This new network bridges the gap between physical and virtual worlds. And it’s powered by pets mining crypto.
The Problem with Crypto
Cryptocurrency is virtual currency. And blockchain, the technology behind it, has the ability to let you buy anything from anyone without going through a third party, like an online retailer. This is possible due to smart contracts, which are essentially computer codes with preset conditions that automatically fulfill a contract once its terms are met.
In other words, smart contracts are “trustless.” In theory, if you commission a service or goods from someone, your funds won’t be released until you receive exactly what you paid for. No negotiations, no lawyers.
But smart contracts become a little more complicated when you’re buying something in the physical world. How do you guarantee that one party actually received goods from another? This is especially difficult when you’re not going through a centralized organization like Amazon.
In essence, how do you integrate blockchain, a virtual technology that is already transforming industries, with the physical world of purchases, pets and your living room?
In short, blockchain needs to receive automated location services through an oracle, a device that feeds information to a smart contract. Instead of relying on someone to enter data at each step in the supply chain, an oracle lets a blockchain operate without human interaction. It makes transactions completely “trustless.”
Mining Crypto in the Real World
Tracking a package from one place to another is great, but what does that have to do with pets mining crypto? In short, GPS tracking is what makes pets mining crypto possible.
This is what blockchain company XYO Network is working on. As part of their larger project of installing beacons across the world that can track everything from a lost package to your keys, they’ve created a mining kit. This includes a beacon that helps the XYO system verify within their network that something they’re tracking has reached a certain location.
We call this crypto location mining. Anyone carrying a small beacon can earn XYO tokens when they verify the location of an item. Per XYO’s green paper:
This eliminates the dependence of a trusted third party to facilitate every transaction. The data that smart contracts rely on (oracles), must be verifiable and have a high degree of accuracy. The systems that record and deliver this data must be protected from any interference, attacks and/or error.
Additionally, XYO is open API. This means that blockchain developers can use any hardware or program as a beacon within the system. You don’t necessarily have to get one of their mining kits.
And Your Pet Can Do It, Too
Instead of walking around and crypto-location mining, you can have your pet mining crypto all day.
You can do this by connecting an XYO GPS to your cat, dog or lizard’s collar. As they walk around, they trigger beacons within the network. In exchange, you receive XY tokens. This works best if you have an outdoor cat that roams the neighborhood or you take your dog on frequent walks.
Now, instead of having your dog attack the mailman, he can be apart of the network that gets packages safely to your doorstep. That’s one small step for man pets and one giant leap for mankind.
XY’s token has a $50 million market cap. Just like bitcoin mining, which will cap off at 21 million, your pets won’t be able to location mine crypto forever. However, this doesn’t mean that the tokens they earn will lose value. In fact, the less crypto is available for mining, the more valuable it can be.
