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CoreWeave redirects 6K GPU from crypto mining to coronavirus research

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Catherine Martin reporter

Mon, 23 Mar 2020, 06:41 am UTC

Image by CoreWeave

CoreWeave, the largest U.S. miner on the Ethereum blockchain has decided to use thousands of its graphics processing units (GPUs) to help find a solution for coronavirus.

About six thousand GPUs that were used for crypto mining were pointed toward Stanford University’s Folding@Home project that aims to boost coronavirus research to develop a pharmaceutical drug that will combat COVID019, Coindesk reported.

The research will use thousands of computers around the world to form a distributed supercomputer for disease research. Brian Venturo, CoreWeave co-founder and chief technology officer, is positive that the project has a shot in finding a drug for the virus and they want to be part of the solution by doubling its network with its GPUs, which are designed for complex calculations.

Venturo explained that the 6,000 GPUs made up about 0.2% of Ethereum’s total hash rate. It earns 28 Ether (ETH) daily which is about $3,600 at press time. But CoreWeave doesn’t mind this, instead, it is hoping that the GPUs can help find a solution for coronavirus.

“Their research had profound impacts on the development of front-line HIV defense drugs, and we are hoping our [computing power] will aid in the fight against coronavirus,” Venturo said.

Venturo added that when the research was mentioned to CoreWeave the team didn’t think twice to support it. In fact, they immediately put up a test system and it was running within minutes. CoreWeave has been sharing over half of its computing power for coronavirus research.

“The idea of 'should we do this?' was never really brought up, it kind of just happened. We were all enthusiastic that we might be able to help,” Venturo added.

Folding@home is a decentralized project and it uses a massive computer for its research. The firm uses the computing power of anyone willing to participate even if it’s just a single laptop. The process is similar to bitcoin mining, if a user detects a “solution” to the problem, it will distribute the information to the rest of the group.

Meanwhile, the group behind the controversial coronavirus tracking app has crypto ties. The co-founders and investor of the Israeli spyware firm NSO Group Ltd have invested in bitcoin startups and exchanges.

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