The Computer Lotto

Just clicking through some links after I downloaded my first .7z file (7-Zip) which required a quick apt-get install p7zip , I stumbled on Parallel Bzip2, and then onto Monetary Awards for Mersenne Prime’s. It looks like an easy way to devote some CPU cycles to winning a cash prize. Not a bad idea. The chance of success is not great, but not much cost either if you have low-load systems always on.

I wonder how long it will be before cash donations can drive other distributed computing initiatives? Here’s one scenario that might work:

- A distributed client installed on your OS grants you participation and a unique identifier.

- Monthly prizes go to a randomly picked user from the client membership.

- Multiple classes of prizes could exist. Participation level, in terms of cpu cycles, could qualify you for an entry in one of the classes of prizes. This would encourage people to participate as much as possible up to a certain point. Capping participation benefits would ensure that people with access to large computing environments would not have a significant advantage to winning the cash prize, discouraging many smaller players.

- Once in place, this distributed network, driven by monetary prizes could be used to test prebuilt binaries in a variety of operating environments prior to release. If it was tied in with new hardware virtualization extensions, clients could operate small, secure, virtualized environments, allowing much more flexibility than today’s distributed applications.

Effectively a more formal version of the Mersenne Prime contest to drive testing and/or development of specific software products.