In this video the host discusses how individuals can help combat the COVID‑19 pandemic from home by contributing idle computer processing power to the distributed research project Folding@home. He explains the basic science of protein folding, how the virus’s spike protein must fold into a three‑dimensional shape to infect cells, and why mapping these folding pathways can aid drug discovery. The host critiques the allocation of research funding, contrasting billions spent on consumer‑grade improvements (e.g., making chocolate taste better) with the urgent need for pandemic research. He then introduces BitcoinMYK, a cryptocurrency‑based reward system that logs users’ Folding@home sessions and issues a small token (Bitcoin MYK) as a thank‑you, emphasizing that it is not a payment but a modest incentive to offset electricity costs. The video walks through the simple steps to register, start a session, and receive rewards, while noting that the primary research priority on the Folding@home platform is currently COVID‑19, though the same infrastructure also supports studies on cancer, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other diseases. Finally, the host reflects on broader societal issues such as the interconnectedness revealed by the pandemic, the challenges of cryptocurrency adoption, and the hope that collective volunteer effort will lead to healthier outcomes.
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Welcome back to the channel, and today we want to talk about the coronavirus, how you can fight the coronavirus at home. So the coronavirus has hit us quite hard. You know, I think many of us have felt helpless in the wake of the coronavirus, and at this point in time, many of us are indoors. We can't go to work, some of us can't go to school. Um, and our, uh, it's really starting to take its toll on us. Um, being able to, uh, try to get some type of, um, control over the coronavirus is what we're attempting to do. Our governments and a variety of people. But what can we do at home, uh, to try to help in this effort and, uh, um, do something that can hopefully help to end this, uh, Coronavirus before it gets even any worse. And so it came to my attention, there is a, a website out called Folding@home started by, I believe, a Stanford University alumni who basically uses this site to take our computational power from our computers and it is able to help us to, um, or help to understand the creation of this virus and how it works, um, under the ideas of how they fold or, or folding proteins. Uh, basically in these virus there exists a protein shell, and on the outer layer of these, uh, of these shells is, uh, basically how the virus is able to attach to our healthy cells and infect us by making copies of the information. Um, excuse me, guys, uh, from such a virus. So, um, the, the basic understanding of this is that it is type— it is kind of in a form that is type, uh, I guess you could say flat, uh, and then as it folds, it becomes this kind of three-dimensional structure, right? And the general idea is if we can understand how to— how that folding process works and try to eliminate it, it will stop the virus from being able to make copies of itself and spread. This is where our computers come into play. A process like this can take a large amount of computational power. And through a network of computers, a decentralized network across the globe, it makes it ever so much easier to be able to basically map out what's going on with these proteins, right? So it's pretty interesting stuff. Um, but it also, you know, brings to mind, I think, what is, uh, important, you know, on our list of priorities when it comes to research specifically. Um, interesting information that just tidbit of information that came out about how some research companies spend billions upon billions of dollars just to find, uh, or just to do research on making things like chocolate taste more chocolate, chocolate-like, right? Making it— and I just find that so interesting, right? That you want something that tastes more chocolate to the point you're going to spend billions of dollars on it when there can be so much more good done in other areas of research that on the list of priorities, you know, I think might be a lot more important. You know, not saying that, you know, having great products and services and things like that aren't important. But I think we do have to, in the wake of what's happened with coronavirus, take a step back and, and just go, well, is this the best thing we could be doing with the direction of where we spend our time and research and money and, and so on and so forth? Um, but let's go over to the site. Let's take a look at this site and see what it's talking about. And our project here, BitcoinMYK, that's trying to lend a hand to this effort the best we can. We are implementing a type of bonus reward system into people using the, this, this product, using this, the site rather, this nonprofit organization. There is no compensation for this, but as human beings, I think we should understand that the Coronavirus is also showing us that we're very close connected, aren't we? When we get these viruses and disease that can so easily spread to one another, our worlds get more intertwined together at a very accelerated rate. And it's everybody's problem, right? And every— we all have to take care of each other. And interesting enough, I was watching interview with Bernie Sanders, the presidential candidate, last night and Anderson Cooper, and they were talking about how everybody's went out and bought this hand sanitizer, right, off the shelves to the point your neighbors don't have hand sanitizer. And this is an ecosystem where we need to keep everybody healthy if possible. And, you know, that it might be neighborly if you're the person who purchased a year's supply of hand sanitizer to maybe give some out. And so I think that kind of rings true with this as well, that it's everybody's problem. And if you're able to, if you have a computer at home that you don't use for work or just kind of sits there and it just kind of runs, this is something great you could be doing with that. And although it is a nonprofit organization, you don't receive any compensation. You do expend electricity from your computer. So that is the one downside. And of course that costs money and there's no compensation for that. The project I'm part of, BitcoinMYK, what we're doing is we've set up a system here that allows you to run and log your sessions while your computer is running with this system. And you receive our cryptocurrency Bitcoin MYK that does trade on third-party exchanges and has some value. Now let's be clear here, um, you know, we hope that this is something that we would be doing more on a volunteer level. And, uh, the amount of money that you will get from Bitcoin MYK and doing this, you may not find significant and you might not be able to do much with it. But we're trying to do our part to have this system where you can get something, right? And, uh, it is just a way of us rewarding, uh, you guys for doing this thing, uh, and hopefully linking our communities closer together so we can focus on, uh, very important things. So it's very easy to use. You get a Wallet ID with our cryptocurrency. You put your account name in, hit start session, Submit. When you're done, stop session, submit. It is that easy. We log your time. We send the cryptocurrency to your wallet. All right, that easy. And it's just a little thank you if you wanna do this. You know, again, it's not compensation or payment for using your computer. These are nonprofit organizations with Folding@Home. And with us, it's just, you know, giving out cryptocurrency to say thanks. Trying to do something other than nothing, right? But let's get over to the site and just show you all just how very interesting and important this is. So let me click and take over there where you will be going to download if you so choose to do this. But look at this, take a look at this. It is not just about the coronavirus. It is breast cancer, epigenetics, kidney cancer, Alzheimer's, Right? It's a neurological disease. It's Parkinson's disease. Using your computer can lead to the cure of— just think about how significant that is and how important that is to this research. And not getting off the viruses and diseases, right now it is priority for coronavirus. So basically what that means is even if you come over here and try to do these other, diseases that they have been doing. And this is showing what you download on your various operating systems and software and whatnot. And there's quite a bit of forums and help guidelines and such on the site. You will find forums, communities, everything you need is here. But right now, that priority is going to go to coronavirus because coronavirus is wreaking the most havoc on us, right? So even though you might try these others, it's probably going to use your computer for coronavirus only, right? But it's so interesting. This is something we could do with many diseases, and this is something that we can really do something important, right? Not to get off track here, but in speaking about our project BitcoinMYK, that is a cryptocurrency project that is trying to find so many uses for cryptocurrency in our world to help our world to advance humankind for the, for the better part of cryptocurrency. I think that a lot of the society hasn't used it, and the reality of the situation is we just haven't found a great demand for cryptocurrency, right? Try as we may, it just doesn't— it just isn't something people are using right now, right? If you try to make a currency out of cryptocurrency and you try to accept it as payments, there are so many limitations with cryptocurrency, not only the volatility of the price changes, which make it very difficult for merchants to be able to exchange their products back. But also, you can't charge back, right? If there's a discrepancy or there's a product that is damaged or any consumer decides they don't want to use it, there are so many issues with chargebacks and cryptocurrency. There are none. So it makes it very difficult to use in that way. And by limiting the uses of cryptocurrency, it makes the demand for it go down a lot, right? So it's not in high demand, and a lot of the world can't even see where they need it or where they will be using it in the future. Um, but in relationship to things like this where people are using computer power and that's costing them electricity, is volunteer to be able to create a cryptocurrency situation around that where you can kind of feed back some of that, maybe offset some of those costs a little. That I believe can be helpful and useful to someone. Um, but I think this is great. Um, we will be able to do something. A lot of people are sitting at home anyway, uh, just hoping this thing blows over. Uh, this is something you could do with that time. Um, log on with our site and you can get rewards while you're doing it. Um, and, uh, Rob, you know, of course, if you have any questions, you can come over to our site. We'll be more than happy to assist and help you there. or leave a comment in the section, or so on and so forth. Um, uh, you will also have to register with the site to get paid from us. Now keep in mind, you do not have to use BitcoinMYK to do this. You can just come over here to foldingathome.com, go directly to this, and use this. We're only, um, trying to implement this feature with BitcoinMYK so people can gain some type of thank you rewards from it. But yes, this is a time to reflect on what's important and, you know, what we need to do as a society to fight this thing and be healthier because we're stuck in, you know, this is where we're at with this and, you know, we're either gonna have to live with this and risk being infected or we can sit home and we can try to figure out ways to make it better. Better, but it is causing quite a bit of reflection and, uh, hopefully for the better. You know, hopefully we'll be a lot healthier. Maybe this will make people be a lot more cleaner and maybe this can be an overall reduction in many illnesses and diseases throughout this process. And so hopefully something good does come out of this. Well, that's all I want to say in the video. If you like content like this, don't forget to like and subscribe. And until next time, as always, Take care of yourself and each other.
