Written by Chris Kalaboukis, Chief Philosopher, Engineer, and Futurist at hellofuture written for Nodle and Hackernoon.
Nodle’s “The Citizens Network” Lets You Earn Money (and Help Find Lost Dogs).
Doesn’t it seem weird that the world is covered with billions of super sophisticated and powerful devices, studded with sensors and more powerful than rooms of computers from a few years ago, and those devices are just sitting in people’s pockets, or in their hands playing Fortnite, and nothing more?
A number of years ago, the SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence) project needed a lot of processing power to help churn through millions of images looking for signs of extraterrestrial life. Instead of leasing computer time (which at the time cost a lot of money) some very smart people (David Gedye and Craig Kasnoff) looked at all of the computers sitting out there on the internet and thought “I wonder if there is a way to use all of that computing power sitting idle on peoples desks (this was in the days when everyone had a desktop computer) to help process this” and invented SETI@home. Anyone with an internet-connected computer could download and install a tiny piece of software and whenever their computer was idle SETI@home would “borrow” its processing power to help decipher the images.
While those days are way behind us we have something even better now: billions of sensor-laden devices, with tons of idle processing power, connected to the internet at all times, in people's pockets or in their hands all over the world.
What if, SETI@home style, we could somehow leverage all of those sensors and that processing power to locate and poll devices in the local area of each device? If we did this, would we not create the most distributed sensor and computing network of all time?
Just think, every smartphone is a node on this massive network, using its processing power and sensors to capture and track local devices. While the processing would be kept separate and private from the rest of the phone, just like SETI@home, the network would utilize the sensors on the node to track everything around it.
Sounds pretty cool, right? Every phone out there, including the one you are reading this on, part of this massive network. While it sounds great, why would anyone want to do this? At least with SETI@home, we were looking for aliens. Your regular human might want to help that cause (especially if they were willing to share their advanced technology like transporters, replicators, and Cordrazine). Why would I want my phone to be a part of this network?
Simple. You get paid. As a node in the network (dubbed The Citizens Network by Nodle, the inventors of the tech), your phone would earn cryptocurrency, just by being part of the network. This is truly “making money while you sleep” (or while playing Words With Friends)
Think of it as a community of smartphones that act as secure nodes — or hotspots — to seamlessly connect and locate physical assets, like lost pets (Fido! Fido! Come here, boy! Where are you?) or stolen items, and provide valuable data insights for the Internet of Things.
The Citizen Network members can earn cryptocurrency through everyday activities such as walking, hiking, or commuting. You just install the Nodle Cash app, and your phone will become a conduit to signals (or beacons) from IoT connected devices in your vicinity. These beacons are tiny bits of valuable information transmitted to their owners in exchange for Nodle Cash. The more valuable the beacon, the more cryptocurrency rewarded you. You don’t have to do anything other than going about your normal day.
Some of you are thinking - this won’t work - a) how can I trust you to keep my information private b) I hear that “mining crypto” uses up a lot of battery power, I already have enough battery issues and c) there has to be a catch, I still need to do something, right?
Ah but a) the Nodle Cash app runs in a private instance, not interacting with your private data in any way b) firstly, it’s not “mining crypto”, your getting paid for the use of your sensors and processor and secondly it uses hardly any battery power (we’ve tested it, a lot) and c) no, you just install it, agree to the terms, and let it run. You literally don’t need to do anything else, and it will earn money for you.
What are you waiting for? There is literally no downside - you’ll earn money - and possibly pay for that ridiculously expensive smartphone that you had to have, and maybe, just maybe, help to reunite Fido with his owner. Isn’t that worth something? Get the app from the AppStore or Google Play today.
Chris Kalaboukis is also an inventor on 86 patents on the internet, social networking, and fintech space, he is also an experienced technologist, architected and launched a multitude of apps, both web, and mobile as well as a serial entrepreneur, helming several startups from inception to launch. He has also authored several books on innovation and the future and blogs and podcasts at thinkfuture.com.