Use your computer’s extra power to mine cryptocurrency—and help low-income people pay bail

People are used to rounding up their spare change or running lots of apps in the background of their computer. Two new programs are taking those well-known strategies and using them to support bail funds for people who can’t pay. 

Appolition, which launched Tuesday, lets users round up their credit card purchases to the nearest dollar and donate the remainder to community bail funds. It’s like Acorns, but instead of investing your money, you’re directing it to a cause. The name of the app  is a play on abolition, a nod to its focus on racial justice and ending mass incarceration.

Bail Bloc, launched Wednesday by a team at The New Inquiry, takes your computer’s spare power and mines a cryptocurrency called Monero, which is converted into U.S. dollars and donated to the Bronx Freedom Fund and soon The Bail Project. Bail Bloc runs on a complicated system, but you don’t need to fully understand cryptocurrency or Monero to contribute—although it does come with a helpful cryptocurrency explainer for those who are curious. Read more…

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