Is mining Banano with Folding@Home killing your computer? If so, hope is in sight. The Banano team has just introduced BoomPoW, its new, low energy Proof of Work mining system.

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Mining with BoomPoW

I wrote about Banano a week or so ago, in my post about cryptocurrency that rewards you for participating in scientific research. And "mining" Banano by running Folding@Home is still a great way to get some crypto while doing a good deed. Check out my post for more information on that.

However, running Folding@Home is, to put it mildly, resource-intensive. It will use as much of your CPU and GPU as you allow it to, and with three intensity levels to choose from, it's not that easy to control. That makes Banano mining with Folding@Home less than ideal for laptops and other small computers.

On September 24th, the Banano team announced BoomPoW, which is its version of the distributed Proof of Work (or DPoW) system used by its parent coin, Nano. DPoW is a way of controlling the computational load for apps built on blockchains like Nano and Banano, where apps are expected to do their own PoW calculations.

How it all works is pretty technical (and you can read all about it on the Nano Fandom site), but the TL;DR is that Banano apps that can't handle their own PoW workload ask the BoomPoW server to do the PoW for them. The BoomPoW server then farms the PoW calculation out to miners like you and me, and pays them a small fee for their trouble.

Because the Proof of Work used in Banano is on-demand, and not a non-stop calculation the way it is in traditional PoW systems like Bitcoin's, mining with BoomPoW is intermittent. Your computer spends a lot of time idling, and just ramps up your CPU and/or GPU for a few seconds when the BoomPoW server hands it some work. That makes BoomPoW ideal for situations where low energy consumption is needed.

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There's one caveat to that. As you can see from the chart above, there's not a lot of demand on the BoomPoW server right now. If the demand increases, then the energy required from BoomPoW miners will increase as well. My prediction, though, is that the BoomPoW computational load will never approach the scale of running Folding@Home.

What about Curing Cancer?

Of course, the original Banano idea of running Folding@Home to earn coins is a noble one. That system isn't going anywhere, and I encourage you to use it if you want to earn Banano and you have the resources. With the current BoomPoW workload, you'll also earn a lot more Banano running Folding@Home than you will mining with BoomPoW. So it's a trade-off.

If you do decide to mine with BoomPoW, though, you're still supporting scientific research indirectly. One of the Banano apps that makes use of the BoomPoW server is Bananominer, the app that collects results from Banano's Folding@Home team and sends coin rewards to those users. So there's that.

How Do I Mine with BoomPoW?

It's pretty easy to set up. There's a BoomPoW mining client available on GitHub for Windows and Linux (and it might work on MacOS with a little fiddling, too). Instructions for setting it up can be found here.

If you're on Windows, the one part of the instructions that you might find intimidating is the part where you're asked to install Python. Trust me, it's easy. All you'll do is follow the link to the Python site, download the Python installer, run it, select all the default options, and you're good to go.

Once you've set up your BoomPoW miner, you can watch the BoomPoW statistics in real time at the BoomPoW Dashboard. You can also find your own miner by its payout address, and see a list of the apps that are currently using BoomPoW.

I really like the idea of Banano. It's a memecoin for a cause, and it's a lot of fun, too. This is just one of the many ways you can support it, and just one of the many ways to earn Banano; check out https://banano.how/ for more.