The recent upsurge in cryptocurrency mining and blockchain technology means that computers are getting ever more prolific and more powerful, so that the amount of power consumed by cryptocurrency miners worldwide is now greater than the national consumption of some small countries. New solutions are in the pipelines, however, including some blockchain micro-grid solutions for local power production, and a much more radical idea from an organisation known as the Institute of Human Obsolescence. 

The project is aimed at exploring the potential of the human body to dispense excess energy, which might then be harnessed to power the computer arrays used by cryptocurrency miners. This energy comes from body heat, via a specially designed body suit furnished with tiny thermoelectric generators. 

These generators determine the difference between the body temperature of the person in the suit and the ambient room temperature, and harvest the differential energy to generate electricity for the mining rigs. In tests, 37 volunteers generated sufficient power (127,210 milliwatts) for 212 hours of crypto mining, during which time 16,594 assorted digital coins were apparently unlocked.

Expert analysis of the effort/reward ratio suggests that although this is an interesting, innovative project, it\'s not really worthwhile in terms of results. What it does do, though, is to show how people are thinking outside the box to address the ever-increasing energy problems besetting our planet.