Do you have a computer and broadband? Rent it out to churn bitcoin from Baidu Gold Mine
Chinese internet giant Baidu will pay cash for use of spare computer capacity
A service launched by China’s internet giant Baidu can make you money if you are willing to share your desktop computer’s spare computing power for faster downloads, smoother online videos and maybe even mining bitcoin.
Baidu, the operator of China’s dominant online search engine, has launched a service called Baidu Jinkuang, which roughly translates as Baidu Gold Mine in English, to allow users to exchange extra hard disk space on their computers and broadband connection into real money.
But Baidu Jinkuang has put in place some requirements for those who want to become a “super miner” – a computer equipped with at least a “16-core CPU, 64 gigabyte of storage and 1 gigabit broadband network connection”.
Baidu said in a statement on Wednesday that by using a peer-to-peer content delivery network (CDN), the service can gather the extra computing resources and broadband connection in individual homes and use them to help store and speed up the distribution process of various online products.
“CDN enables users to share their unused bandwidth,” said Hu Yongjun, chief operational officer of Huangpu Community, an online platform for digital currency and blockchain technologies. “Bitcoin mining may be one of the uses but it could definitely help live streaming and e-sport platforms and generate hype to lure users as bitcoin is so hot right now.”