[billyhoffman]

I get what you are saying. And I think primes research may be a good thing. But to say, all the heat and power and physical hardware waste of Bitcoin/altcoin mining is offset even somewhat by the helping primes research is kind of silly.

I could say that my handling and use of physical dollar bills could help microbiologists understand how organisms can spread. Technically true, but of dubious value at best.

[pat2man]

Well it all depends on whether someone out there is trying to solve prime numbers on a computer already. If so we kill two birds with one stone.