What is distributed computing?

Put distributed computing simply: imagine several machines computing something in separate parts. Each one uses its processing power to solve part of a larger problem, and together they can solve a bigger, more complex problem.

Making this work efficiently and effectively is another story, because there are many factors to consider. First, how do we split up the tasks? What if a computer is unavailable when it needs to do its part? What if it starts computing and stops halfway through? Do we send the task to another computer? What if the first one resumes?

These problems come up repeatedly, but projects such as BOINC and Bitcoin have managed to overcome many of these barriers.

Why does this matter?

The benefits may seem obvious. First, computing power is decentralized: people in different places, using different machines, keep the network and its processing power running. This makes centralization and targeted attacks harder, and makes the network freer and more secure.

We gotta take the power back!

That is exactly why Bitcoin is so revolutionary: it lets people keep the power to hold their money in their own hands, or, better yet, on their own hardware.

Servers serve well, but whom do they serve?

Buying a server is expensive, and keeping it on 24/7 costs a lot in electricity. That is why the more financial capital you have, the larger your “server farm” can be. Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and other big companies do not dominate the cloud market by accident; you need substantial capital to enter it.

Over the last few decades, though, personal computers, mobile phones, and wearables have increasingly found their way into the hands of ordinary people like us. We use the computing power of these devices to run apps that make everyday life easier or help us escape boredom, but we forget that this computing power is comparable to that of supercomputers from the 1980s and 1990s.

What can we do with idle processing power?

Today, we mostly use our CPUs and GPUs for mining, since it takes a lot of computing power to perform the calculations. Another option is to rent out the unused space on your hard drive for other people to use; Storj is one example.

What comes next?

The blockchain has been discussed so much in recent years because, in a very broad sense, it gives everyone access to an open, immutable, decentralized database. Ethereum understood this well and created a token to be used in contracts, contracts that can be changed and used as you see fit. This is revolutionary too. Cutting red tape and making access universal are promises for the future.

Everyone is still amazed at how quickly smartphones became part of our lives. With IoT (the Internet of Things) gaining momentum and people owning more and more hardware, I would not be surprised if, in the near future, we had devices with applications dedicated to blockchains.