HN Explorer

Proposal: Crypto Mining for Clean Water

1 points by wppick ↗ HN
Want to just put this idea out there for the feasibility of a crypto currency backed not by solving hard computations, but instead for producing clean, pure water.

High quality water and availability seems to be trending in the direction of scarcity. You might think this is ridiculous, since there appears to be an unlimited supply of tap water, but how clean is that water? Tap water is increasingly becoming polluted in ways hard to clean. Microplastics, metals, hormones like estrogen, possible contamination by farming, industry.

What if the work done to mine the crypto currency was the cleaning of water. Either waste water, salt water, or tap water locally (in the home, or apartment complex, or neighbourhood level).

It would need a way to be cheat-proof, but there could be a water-exchange where you can consume or inject clear water and receive/spend crypto-currency.

How harebrained of an idea is it? The fundamental problem is there, but the execution would need to be heavily regulated (possibly limited to highly trusted actors). What if a future fiat currency were not backed by something like gold, or Bitcoin, but clean water?

3 comments

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sharemywin
Mining isn't a good analogy of crypto. Even though that's what it's called. The point is it must have some negative value to provide the scarcity.
lhorie
> there could be a water-exchange where you can consume or inject clear water and receive/spend

> the execution would need to be heavily regulated (possibly limited to highly trusted actors)

You mean like how you pay your hydro bill to your local water provider for the treated water coming out of your tap?

Consider this: you could get a coinbase card today to pay your water bill with crypto. Now just ask yourself why isn't this more widespread among consumers and up the water provider chain and that should provide some clues for how good/bad of an idea crypto-for-water is. One simple TL;DR answer is that currency to pay for services related to water infrastructure must function like currency, i.e. be liquid, stable, widely accepted, functional in the present (as opposed to some pie in the sky future), etc.