user4637: I just learned about BitCoins' existence last 2 weeks.
At first, I thought BitCoins could be used to process human scientific problems. I know it is not computing any really useful thing right now. I wonder if someone has thought about this? (I mean, in the scientific community and BitCoins community). Maybe integrate Grid computing with BitCoins processing?
Or, due to the nature of the block solving algorithm in Bitcoins, whose purpose is solely to verify length of processing, it cannot solve anything useful. Could someone confirm this?
Thanks!

user1409: Bitcoin mining calculation is simply double SHA256 hashing and has no other known application. 
The hashing algorithm is highly unlikely ever to change, although there are other digital cryptocurrencies that use another mining algorithm. Litecoin, for example, uses scrypt hashing in place of sha256.

4637: <p>I just learned about BitCoins' existence last 2 weeks.</p>

<p>At first, I thought BitCoins could be used to process human scientific problems. I know it is not computing any really useful thing right now. I wonder if someone has thought about this? (I mean, in the scientific community and BitCoins community). Maybe integrate Grid computing with BitCoins processing?</p>

<p>Or, due to the nature of the block solving algorithm in Bitcoins, whose purpose is solely to verify length of processing, it cannot solve anything useful. Could someone confirm this?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>
 1409: <p>Bitcoin mining calculation is simply <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/5671/how-do-you-perform-double-sha-256-encoding">double SHA256 hashing</a> and has no other known application. </p>

<p>The hashing algorithm is highly unlikely ever to change, although there are other digital cryptocurrencies that use another mining algorithm. Litecoin, for example, uses <code>scrypt</code> hashing in place of <code>sha256</code>.</p>
