Credit goes to the photographers on this page.

Last week I was invited by the School of Machines, Making & Make-Believe to give an introductory talk on cryptocurrencies and help participants install their first wallet.

During the school's one week money programme, different instructors shed a light on blockchain and cryptocurrencies from several different perspectives.

Blockchain Art

I had the pleasure to sit in on the lectures by artists César Escudero Andaluz and Martín Nadal, introducing different blockchain-art projects, including their own.

They are the inventors of "the worst miner ever"! ;)

Through their initiative "Bitcoin of Things (BoT)" they transform ordinary objects into functional Bitcoin miners, able to compete for the block rewards.

The Bittercoin miner is an old calculator that takes "an eternity" to mine a Bitcoin, since it only competes with one number per block. While in theory it is possible to find the nonce, it is of course highly unlikely in practice.

By having it print every single calculation on a paper roll, and seeing the paper accumulate around the miner, the artists also want to raise awareness of the energy resources used for mining.

Bitter Token?

As an art installation the miner has been displayed at several exhibitions. In fact, Martin and Cesar built several of them, so they can be at different exhibitions simultaneously.

Since - hypothetically - there is a potential for each of them to win the block reward, plus they do have a substantial value as art pieces, maybe they could be tokenized and become an interesting investment object in addition to an art project?

Who knows, maybe we'll see a "Bitter Token" in the future :) It would be a great way to show how blockchain technology can financially support artists.

Bitcoin of Things (BoT)

But this old calculator is not the only thing they transformed into a miner, as you can see in this short clip.

Maybe you can catch a workshop with them once and build your own miner, as the participants of the School of Ma did last week!

For me as an investor and educator who looks at Bitcoin and blockchain from a financial point of view, it was enlightening to change perspectives and see things through the eyes of artists.

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Anja Schuetz helps absolute beginners to become confident crypto investors and create a Plan B for their financial future. She is the author of How To Stay Safe in the Crypto Space and offers - a crypto safety guide for beginners - and has lots of free educational crypto resources on her website.

She also consults as a Customer Communication & Operations Manager for blockchain start-ups.

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