Today in “we are totally not heading head-first into a completely dystopian future at a billion miles an hour” news…

Microsoft is reportedly proposing a method to generate cryptocurrency by “monitoring people’s brain activity and other personal biometric data,” according to a new report in The Independent.

The company has reportedly filed for a patent called “Cryptocurrency System Using Body Activity Data” which details how a person could attach sensors to their body to “earn” cryptocurrency through mining. Microsoft is apparently not just satisfied with computers doing the crypto mining, they are pushing for mining via a “human body activity associated with a task”.

The patent states: “For example, a brain wave or body heat emitted from the user when the user performs the task provided by an information service provider, such as viewing an advertisement or using certain internet services, can be used in the mining process.”

It continues: “Instead of massive computation work required by some conventional cryptocurrency systems, data generated based on the body activity of the user can be proof-of-work, and therefore, a user can solve the computationally difficult problem unconsciously.”

Such a system would require “hooking up” a device to sensors on the body that “detect the activity required of the user to generate the cryptocurrency.” The report says that “body fluid flow” and “organ activity and movement” are two such body functions, along with brain waves and body heat, that could be monitored.

The patent lists 28 concepts for using such a system to mine for cryptocurrency.