Cryptocurrency mining has always been an intriguing and a peculiar business model. For most at-home users, it is simply not profitable or useful to do so. Chinese internet giant Baidu claims that will soon change, though. Their new service allows users to rent out spare computing power. In exchange, users will be paid for doing so. This applies to both spare hard drive space and excess bandwidth. It does require a massive computer to even join this offer, though.
To put this offer into perspective, Baidu has launched a new service. Most people refer to it as the Baidu Gold Mine, although that is not the actual name. This new offer allows people all over the world to share their hard drive space and bandwidth with the company. In exchange for providing these resources, users will be paid real money. It is evident this can be sued for Bitcoin mining purposes as well. How this will play out for the Chinese company, remains to be seen. It is evident there may be some genuine interest in this project.
Baidu and Bitcoin Mining
According to the company, their focus is on peer-to-peer content delivery. Gathering extra computing resources can be of great help to users all over the world. It allows users to share unused bandwidth, of which there is plenty all over the world. One of the options worth exploring is Bitcoin mining, but it will not be a priority for now. First and foremost, the focus is on live streaming and e-sport platforms. Bitcoin will be getting some attention at some point, though.
As far as payments go, the goal is to pay in cash. That is a remarkable choice by Baidu, to say the very least. One would expect them to pay with gift cards or even digital payments, but that is not the case. For now, it remains unclear what type of returns users can expect. It can be quite the lucrative business model, assuming your PC meets the requirements. That will not be the case for most people, though.
Should this service be used for Bitcoin mining, things will get pretty interesting. it is unclear how Baidu would go about something like that, but the option is still on the table as we speak. Mining cryptocurrencies is still legal in China, for the time being. There is seemingly a growing demand for cloud computing services in China as we speak. Especially when it comes to content delivery networks, good money can be made in quick succession. Baidu is embarking on an interesting mission.
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