I think it would be an interesting idea if you could somehow build into the client something that makes it use a small fixed % of your cpu (say %1-%10), so you would literally be mining platinum and use that to buy things on the server, I don't know I think it's a cool idea.
This is basically exactly the platinum system that is active right now. Your UO client is using some % of your cpu when you are logged in and for that you get a certain amount of plat.
I may be mistaken but my interpretation of the original post was more along the lines of making clients connected to UOR into a distributed mining cloud, depositing coins they find into a wallet owned by Chris, using the gains to buy nice things for the shard like maybe ads or hosting, and potentially paying out to contributors via plat. The biggest problem with the plan aside from the technical is that while transparency via the blockchain may be feasible, money always has a way of causing discord in a community. For that I am ever grateful that this server remains free and has avoided such headaches thus far.
I think a way to avoid that would be to disallow buying any platinum coins because you could just buy the coins people would not stay logged in and the shards population would plummet, I think you should be able to withdraw the tiny amount of money you make if you wanted to, but i think most players would just buy items on the server instead of withdrawing the tiny amount they make, maybe an option to turn the mining off or from 1 to 3% would be good too, I don't know it could help fund the server, I might make my own server one day with this kind of system, it was just an idea even if it is kind of crappy lol, it might give players more of an incentive to play and stay logged in.
