Geomining — A Way To Get Rewarded For Physical Presence and Other Real Life Activities
In the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, the term ‘mining’ is used to describe the work performed to create a new block. Each block contains a list of user transactions, so this work is crucial to enable progress on the blockchain. The ever-growing sequence of blocks forms an immutable ledger, which is the core value proposition of the blockchain.
There are several different algorithms that can be used to create new blocks, with the most popular being “proof of work”, but they all encapsulate similar game theoretical rules that ensure that miners are motivated to mine. Usually, this means they are rewarded with new coins for every block they create and add to the blockchain. As long as the coins are valuable, the miners will want to do the work to keep the blockchain going. That is also a mechanism of inflation — the supply of coins is controlled by the algorithm governing the speed of block creation and the rules around the amount of coins per block, etc. In addition, users can reward the miners with a transaction fee. This ensures the miner incentive is there even in cases when the block reward is relatively small.
In this model, one group of actors in the ecosystem — miners — are incentivised to perform work that is valuable to another group — the end users. In Geon Network, we take this concept and apply it at the application level, although with some differences. The user can specify the reward and also the work miners need to do to get the reward. Most importantly, unlike in traditional blockchains described above where a miner is a machine that follows the mining algorithm, in Geon Network miners are humans. They do not maintain a blockchain. Instead, they just perform the work defined by the user and get rewarded. This work will normally comprise of one or more tasks executed in the real world.
Since Geon Network is a location-based service, the first task that miners must complete is provide a proof of location. This is done by the Geon App on their smartphone, so they don’t need to worry about the technical details. All they do is log into the app and make sure they are in the right location. The vehicle for the reward is a Geon — a virtual, Augmented Reality object that can be located anywhere on the map. When a Geon is created, its creator specifies the location, the reward and any extra requirements. Geominers, as we call them, must be physically present at the location to claim the reward and also complete other work the creator specified — a process called Geomining. Apart from the proof of location, Geon creator has many more options, which you can review at https://geon.network.
The nice feature of geomining is that the rules are very customizable. Geomining can be restricted to your friends and family or open to anyone who wishes to participate. You may allow geomining only at certain times of day and within specific range of a Geon. Additionally, the reward can be any type of information really, including music and video files or even streaming. It can be a secret message, a coupon code, a hyperlink or any digital asset you can think of — from cryptocurrencies, to collectible tokens, to loyalty points.
In essence, geomining provides a way for Geon creators to incentivise anyone using the Geon app to travel to a location, spend time at the location, do extra tasks and claim rewards. The flexibility in defining the geomining rules and the rewards is what makes it powerful.
