The cryptocurrency scene is becoming increasingly incomprehensible.

Recently, my neighbor hung a small device on his balcony. At first, no one paid attention, but later we learned that it was for mining.

The device doesn't require electricity, doesn’t generate heat, and doesn’t make noise, yet it can make my neighbor's phone buzz non-stop every day — all notifications of incoming transfers. I even asked him what this thing is for. He casually replied, 'It's a new type of miner that makes money from weather data.'

I was a bit confused by this statement, but after he explained a few things to me, I got a general idea.

This thing is called the Marco Weather Station, which automatically collects weather data such as temperature, humidity, wind speed, etc., near your balcony every day and then uploads it to the blockchain. The more frequently the data is uploaded, the more token rewards you will receive.

It turns out that mining nowadays doesn’t necessarily have to rely on expensive graphics cards and CPUs.

Later, I specifically went to learn more about it and found that the logic behind the CAILA project is quite innovative.

Its core combines AI, blockchain, and real-world data collection, which is what the industry refers to as DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network). The Marco weather station is a physical device provided to users by the project. When placed outdoors, it automatically collects various weather-related data, such as temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed, etc., and directly uploads it to the blockchain.

The on-chain AI program (referred to as AI Agent in the project) will make weather predictions and data analysis based on this real data. To encourage users to continuously upload data, the project team has prepared an incentive mechanism, where users receive some token rewards every time their device successfully uploads data, and this token is their native token: $CA.

Besides mining with the devices themselves, the gameplay of the CAILA project is actually quite rich. For example, when Binance Alpha was just launched, the trading volume of the project skyrocketed to the top of the entire sector on the same day. This is not something every new project can achieve, indicating that the community's enthusiasm and trading volume are indeed quite strong.

Additionally, I've noticed that this project is quite clean. Generally, in the crypto world, projects often pre-sell a bunch of tokens to VC, reserve a bunch, and then pump the price to cash out quickly, but CAILA is different. From the beginning, it adopted a fair distribution model (Fair Launch), with no VC pre-sales and no large team reserves, leading to high community participation. The official team even distributed nearly 300 Marco devices to users for free, allowing them to participate at almost no cost.



Even if you're not very interested in hanging such devices, CAILA also offers many other relatively simple ways to participate:

  • You can participate in the on-chain tasks launched in collaboration with ecological platforms like UXUY and FourMeme. Completing tasks can also earn you some $CA tokens.

  • You can also go to the THENA platform and add some liquidity to the CA and BNB liquidity pools to earn extra token rewards every day.

  • The official Discord community is quite active, distributing test tokens at any time. You just need to send a keyword, and the test tokens will be credited to your account.



    The key point is that the concept of this project may truly represent a new trend in Web3: previously, mining required graphics cards and computing power, but now it can be done by collecting real data to earn money, eliminating the anxiety of a computing power arms race, and there’s no need to worry about electricity costs and hardware wear.

To be honest, although this model combining on-chain and off-chain is just emerging, it’s possible that in a few years, people will look back and find that the crypto space has quietly completed a thorough upgrade of mining methods.

Anyway, I'm seriously considering whether I should also get a Marco to hang on my balcony, as 'lying flat' mining without any effort is really appealing.

——

I am a cryptocurrency observer, a crypto enthusiast who has recently started to pay serious attention to weather forecasts.