If you saw my last article about using my hardware to help cute cancer, you'll understand what I am talking about. These simulations and calculations are extremely taxing on your computer. This is what it is like to mine crypto on your computer, as well.
In this sense, I have been "mining" crypto this whole time. I am about 4-5 days into continuous mining. My laptop has only been running at medium power and it is still trying to overheat without proper fan on it. However, I am not here to complain because I am super happy that my hardware is being used for a greater good.
With that being said, I am being rewarded nicely for my efforts in loaning out my computing power. The BANANO Team is doing a great job of distributing $BAN to those that have done a consistent and timely job of "mining". Essential, in a round about way, you really are mining crypto.
Every 12 hours (in my experience) is the time it takes for BANANO to airdrop the $BAN into my wallet. I have been using the Kalium wallet, and that is what I signed up with to initially begin Folding@Home. From what I have seen, GPU earned more points/$BAN than using CPU, but I was able to use both at the same time so that is what I decided to do.
Each time I complete a Work Unit (WU), the BANANO registers the completed work. You can only get rewarded if you complete a WU. You will not get rewarded if you stop "mining" before a WU is completed. Within the Folding@Home application itself you are able to select a few options. One allows for continuous "mining" where as another option will tell your hardware to continue "mining" until you finish the current WU's that you have been working on and then it will end the protein folding. This is nice in case you only want to do this occasionally to your hardware and don't want to blow up your computer.
I have nothing planned for the $BAN that I have earned so far, but I have been watching the price spike recently. I do consider $BAN more of a fun/meme token, but it has all the same functionality of the "big boy" currencies. For this reason, I plan to hold onto everything for now. Who know, it could turn into a wholesome bitcoin competitor.
As a side note, within the BANANO and CryptomonKey communities there are additional ways to earn more $BAN beyond just destroying your computer in the process. They have plenty of random airdrops within Discord and Telegram. So if you are more of the chatty and engaging type (which I certainly am) then you might be better off poking around those social channels. A cool side note about Telegram is that in some of the group chats you can earn another crypto called $DUST, but I will touch more on that later in a future post I am sure.
In the end, I have earned almost $20 worth of $BAN from airdrops and mining. I wouldn't say it is the BEST means to make some extra crypto, but I have certainly tried worse routes. If you are strictly trying to earn some extra coinage, I would NOT suggest either of the mentioned methods above. But if you are interested in doing some leg work for a good cause with the off chance to get a little reward here and there, then I would totally suggest this for you.
In the end I would say that by all technicality, I AM now a crypto miner. I loaned out my CPU & GPU and I gained crypto while doing so.
