Blood, sweat and bitcoin: Mining cryptocurrency with exercise
Even a company like Chaotic Moon, that has made headlines here for its odd, genre defying creations has to bow to the lure of trends every so often. Fitcoin (not to be confused with the several other apps of the same name) hops on the wearble and bitcoin bandwagon. It starts with any activity tracker that meets two requirements: an open API and an integrated heart rate monitor. For demonstration purposes the company chose a Mio. Then there's an app that measures the activity tracked and converts it into an appropriate amount of bitcoin -- in essence paying you to work out. Or, as the tag line puts it: Get ripped. Die mining.
The app, with its stark white and black animations is pretty aggressive. And so is the promo video above. But underneath all that raging testosterone is a sophisticated piece of software that uses an algorithm that mines slivers of bitcoin based on the intensity and duration of your activity. So, even if you don't have time to run a marathon, you can bump up your earning power by plowing through some high-intensity interval runs.
The idea of earning money or even bitcoin for working out isn't exactly new. But even for a proof of concept the Chaotic Moon take on it seems pretty polished. Of course, chances that this is going to become a shipping product are pretty slim. That's not really the business this company is in. They just like to make cool shit.
