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Idle PC? Put It to Work for Humanity (and Get Atto)

· 3 min read
Felipe Rotilho
Software Engineer @ Atto


We all have them. Those moments when our computer sits there, fans whirring softly, screen perhaps dark, doing... well, nothing useful. That powerful machine, capable of complex calculations and rendering stunning visuals, is just waiting. But what if that idle power could be harnessed for something truly meaningful? And what if you could get rewarded for it?

Enter Atto. You might already be familiar with cryptocurrencies that boast feeless transactions, near-instant speeds, and a focus on environmental friendliness – call them a certain flavor of digital cash. Atto is another iteration on the block lattice introduced by the brainiac Colin LeMahieu, building on those principles but with a fresh start.

The Challenge of Fair Distribution

One of the enduring challenges for any new cryptocurrency is fair distribution. How do you get your coin into the hands of many people without resorting to energy-hungry mining operations (which have significant environmental costs) or potentially speculative and exclusionary Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)? This is a puzzle many projects grapple with.

Putting Idle Power to Good Use: Folding@home

For decades, scientists have tackled massive computational problems by tapping into the collective power of volunteers' home computers. Projects like SETI@home captured the public imagination, searching for extraterrestrial signals. More critically for human well-being, Folding@home uses this distributed power to run complex protein folding simulations. Understanding how proteins fold (and misfold) is vital for researching diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, cystic fibrosis, and many forms of cancer. Your idle PC can be a superhero in the fight against these illnesses.

Atto's Approach: Folding for Rewards

This is where Atto finds its inspiration. Much like its cooler cousin, Banano, which pioneered rewarding users for contributing to Folding@home, Atto has adopted a similar model. Instead of mining Atto through competitive, energy-intensive computations, you "mine" it by contributing your computer's power to Folding@home's scientific research. You are literally helping humanity's quest for medical breakthroughs and, as a thank you, receiving Atto.

Ready to Start? Here's How

Getting started is surprisingly easy, especially if you already run Folding@home. It's a straightforward process of linking your Folding@home contributions to an Atto wallet address. The computational work you do helps science, and the points you earn for that work translate into Atto distributed to you. It's a win-win-win: for science, for the environment (compared to traditional mining), and for you.

Find out how to start "mining" Atto by folding here.

So, the next time your computer is taking a break, don't let that power go to waste. Put it to work for humanity's health, contribute to a green and feeless cryptocurrency network, and watch your Atto balance grow. It's computing with a conscience, and you get rewarded for doing good.

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