Arvin Chinsalkar is an astrologer from Palahalli village in Mandya district, Karnataka. The lime-washed walls of the 26-year-old’s tiled home have turned black from the smoke rising from the homa kund in the middle of the hall. When people come to him seeking solutions— mainly, ways to improve their finances—he gives them cryptic yantras.
Unlike the walls of the hall, Arvin’s room is painted in accordance with the vaastu shastra. The room, where he meditates daily, is quiet except for the whirring of countless minifans from a strange contraption sitting under the painting of a raging bull. The mini fans also emit colourful lights and radiate heat. The machine runs 24x7, and improves Arvin’s finances. It is a cryptocurrency mining rig.
The mining rig solves complex mathematical problems. Every problem it solves approves cryptocurrency transactions on a global network. This is part of a public book-keeping process; the ledger is called blockchain. Miners are individuals who dedicate a computer to the process. As reward for keeping the public ledger alive, they get a transaction fee and a minuscule part of new cryptocurrency.
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