What is Metamining?

Tuesday, May 28, 2019
by Sharon Moran

If you’ve never heard of metamining before, don’t worry. It’s because I recently coined the term. My exposure to Bitcoin dates back to June 12, 2009. It’s the day I first heard the word bitcoin. At that time, it sounded like a intellectual, computer game without sophisticated graphics. I didn’t immediately recognize the full potential of bitcoin on that hot, summer night.

Nine years after Satoshi Nakamoto released the original Bitcoin whitepaper, Electroneum launched a two-decimal digital currency after a record-breaking ICO. A few months later, they launched an Android app enabling users to earn cryptocurrency via mobile mining.

What is Metamining?

• attempt to define mining that occurs beyond the confines of the proof-of-work block validating that requires GPU, CPU, or Asic mining rigs.
• is the fair and equitable distribution of cryptocurrency rewards for participating in a cloud-based mining process.
• allows individuals who own an inexpensive cell phone to receive cryptocurrency without the need to purchase expensive mining equipment and in some cases the monthly metamining reward meets or exceeds 10-15% of the individual’s monthly income.

I’ve read countless, misguided criticisms that Electroneum mobile mining is not “real mining.” I happen to be a descendant of Anthracite coal miners so I can talk about what “real mining” is if my readers prefer. If I’m possibly suffering epigenetic repercussions of their hazardous occupational choices, I’m more than qualified on the subject. Of course, most of my readers know these tech critics are referring to proof-of-work validation usually performed by Asic mining rigs when they’re referring to what they consider “real mining.”

To silence the critics, it seemed appropriate to come up with a better term. Metamining is a linguistic simplification that more accurately describes mobile mining. Using the term mobile mining allows room for criticism because it’s two separate words; the term implies it’s mining that is done via mobile means. By using one word, metamining, to describe the process, it’s clear that it is different than mining, in much the same way that metaphysics and physics are very different and parapsychologist and psychologist are very different.

The metamining that Electroneum offers is essentially a universal basic cryptocurrency income (UBCI) on a global level. In The Atlantic the recent article titled The City That’s Giving People Money described a universal basic income experiment in the poverty-afflicted city of Stockton, CA. Stockton didn’t benefit from the technology boom of the Bay Area, and local officials decided to launch the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration, an unconditional cash transfer experiment.

Bitminutes, an ERC20 compatible token founded by a team of Harvard and Stanford graduates, would also benefit from renaming their mobile mining. Bitminutes doesn’t even have the capability that Electroneum offers of allowing users to log in only once a week and extend their mining. Bitminutes requires their app to constantly run in the background.