With the cryptocurrency craze going strong, more and more people are mining their own
It was Christmas vacation, and while most of his friends were sleeping in or headed out to play basketball, Varun Munagala, 13, had a different plan. He woke up early, went to the first floor of his villa in Gachibowli, near Hyderabad, and got ready to do some mining.
No, he didn’t have a helmet or a shovel; his equipment consisted of three large monitors and an advanced graphics processing unit (GPU). After all, this miner was not after coal, but cryptocurrency.
Ever since Bitcoin became a buzzword, cryptocurrencies like Litecoin, Ethereum, Dash and Monero have been in huge demand. While many people want to buy these currencies, there are others, like Varun, who want to mine their own. Across Hyderabad and its outskirts, many youngsters and entrepreneurs have been converting their houses and offices into mining units, hoping to make a fortune.
Varun, who studies in an international school, has been mining for the past six months. “I wanted to buy games and started watching videos on how to make quick money. That is when I got to know about mining,” he says.
With the help of his Ubuntu operating system and a Bash script (a sequence of commands), Varun has been running programmes to generate Ethereum coins, which go into his virtual wallet. “I exchange these coins for games online,” he says. Hesitantly, he adds, “I once lost a good amount after I tried my hand at online gambling.”
This story is from the January 21, 2018 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the January 21, 2018 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
BIOPIC AND BEYOND
Randeep Hooda may have proved his acting credentials with biopics, but typecast him at your own peril
Flutter of flimsy wings
Butterfly Research Centre in Bhimtal boasts 3,500 butterfly and moth specimens
SIMILAR STATES, DIFFERENT BATTLES
The Congress seems to have the edge in Telangana while in Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu and Jagan Mohan Reddy are locked in a bitter battle
A RIDE TO REMEMBER
On board Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s bus as he was attacked
Winning 14 of 17 seats is my target
Anumula Revanth Reddy is on a mission to demonstrate a democratic and egalitarian facet of power and leadership.
LOTUS TAKES ROOT
Buoyed by its slowly growing acceptance among the voters in Tamil Nadu, the BJP is mounting its fiercest offensive ever
BLANK CHECK
Several factors favour an increase in the BJP’s vote share in Kerala, but whether the party can win a seat remains uncertain
CONGRESS HAS A HISTORY OF MAKING ADJUSTMENTS WITH COMMUNAL FORCES
In April 2021, as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was leading the CPI(M)’s assembly poll campaign to win a second consecutive term, a spirited debate erupted in Kerala over an epithet that party workers had bestowed on him.
POLL PLOT
Congress hopes its five guarantees’ will blunt BJP’s aggressive push
MODI'S GUARANTEES REMAIN IN SPEECHES, MY GUARANTEES ARE FULFILLED
The transformation is unmissable. The old-school mass leader Siddaramaiah has suddenly switched into the new avatar of a master strategist.