Blockchain development and cryptocurrency mining company Bitfury has redirected some of its mining hash-power and allocated it towards the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, the company announced that it has so far contributed enough computing power to solve 1,300 calculations involving data collected and analyzed by the “Folding at Home” research group. The company started allocating its massive hash power towards solving COVID-19 problems on March 20th.
The Folding at Home project is an initiative heralded by the Washington University that seeks to mobilize decentralized computing power and use it for research purposes to help develop a solution for the novel Coronavirus.
COVID-19 is a respiratory virus disease that was first reported in China in December 2019 and since then it has affected more than 800,000 individuals globally and killed close to 50,000.
World leaders including institutions and individuals have banded together to fight the pandemic. In cryptocurrency, we have seen several companies pitch in and just last week, Binance, the largest cryptocurrency trading platform created a program to help fight the virus. Through the “Crypto Against COVID” campaign, Binance pledged to donate at least $2 million and help raise more than $5 million. The fight against COIVD-19 is a global fight and anyone able to help is encouraged to do so.
“At our core, our company mission is to do good,” Bitfury’s CEO Valery Vavilov said in a statement. “Our contribution of highly efficient computing power pales next to the selflessness and sacrifice of our medical caregivers and essential staff on the front lines of this virus, but I am confident that this project from Folding at Home, alongside the work of many researchers and doctors, will significantly advance our understanding and treatment of this disease.”
It might be that Folding at Home is requesting individuals and companies to donate computing power but this has not stopped those without the computing power to donate from contributing. Tezos, a popular blockchain-based network has opted to incentivize individuals and companies to contribute towards the course.
Tezos is offering a reward to the highest contributor of computing power to the Folding at Home project. Other notable companies that have chosen to contribute computing power include chip manufacturer Nvidia, Coreweave and Golem among several others.
