I think of research into virtual currencies as at least as beneficial as GIMPS, SETI, Folding@Home. All of these have progressed CS in significant, measurable ways. And if someday one of the many alt-coins or one of their descendants becomes well established, all of this research would be worth it.
Also, while I am still unsure of the benefits of HFTs despite trying really hard to understand how they bring liquidity by front-running etc., I still think the technology invented to make HFT possible is a net-good for humankind - GPUs that can perform trade in nanoseconds, processing happening on the same layer as network traffic, entire CPU/GPUs living an inch from the ethernet port. All of this stuff is really neat and even though the practice of HFT is morally questionable, the fact that it pushes our capabilities further is not something we can ignore.
The future world will be a much better place if I can wire $2k to my dad in India without going through multiple banks, wire-transfer fees, proof of citizenships etc. Better that we work for a world where money is not controlled by the powerful than make better shiny reports for sales and traffic analysis for mobile.
"I think of research into virtual currencies as at least as beneficial as GIMPS, SETI, Folding@Home."
LOL. The cognitive dissonance is strong with this one. Also, mining bitcoins or squeezing a few extra cycles out of a VM is not 'research into virtual currencies'. Look people, let's just call a spade a spade here - us nerds are quite happy with our new-found economic powers (not just BC, in general), and we're all too happy to flex it when new tech (like BC) gives us an early mover advantage. Yeah I'm bitter I'm no BC millionaire because I had other things on my hands 2 years ago than running some software, while I did run SETI@HOME on a largish network for a long time a decade ago for no gain at all; but 200 years ago I would have been a peasant, now I was catapulted into upper middle class just because I was born in the right decade and with that twist in my mind that makes me grok computers better than most people. That's just how it is, why do feel we need to make moral justifications about it (or worse, whack job 'I deserve it because I worked harder' delusions like in that article yesterday about the Google dude).
Also, while I am still unsure of the benefits of HFTs despite trying really hard to understand how they bring liquidity by front-running etc., I still think the technology invented to make HFT possible is a net-good for humankind - GPUs that can perform trade in nanoseconds, processing happening on the same layer as network traffic, entire CPU/GPUs living an inch from the ethernet port. All of this stuff is really neat and even though the practice of HFT is morally questionable, the fact that it pushes our capabilities further is not something we can ignore.
The future world will be a much better place if I can wire $2k to my dad in India without going through multiple banks, wire-transfer fees, proof of citizenships etc. Better that we work for a world where money is not controlled by the powerful than make better shiny reports for sales and traffic analysis for mobile.