SILVER is still more effective as an antibacterial and anti-viral surface, including when it is plated on a surface. The problem is that both copper and silver oxidise easily reducing their effectiveness. I keep a small silver decanter topped up with rum, the theory being that nano particles of silver pass into the body of the rum and these pass into the body on drinking. I have no scientific evidence that it is effective, but it seems to work.
ColdMonkey mines Gridcoin through BOINC computations for science...
So does oxidization make the copper or silver drinking cup pointless then?
BTW, there are band-aids that have silver in them for the anti-microbial properties.
As I understand it the oxidised forms of silver and copper have a greatly diminished effect. Silver in various forms was widely used for its antibiotic properties prior to the discovery of the more modern, and much more effective antibiotics. There is a Wikipedia article on the Medical Uses of Silver that will provide you with more information.
Not sure any scientific evidence is needed, the cool factor sounds off the charts!
I did some Gridcoin a while back, how are payouts? I did not seem to profit much.
Profits on Gridcoin are relatively low. It was designed to have slow payouts over time, in order to give every miner equality of access. Payout does not decline in the way other cryptocurrency do, it is always at a rate of 5% of the previous year's total ownership. It more nearly approximates the needs of a currency, than Bitcoin. Bitcoin approximates the behaviour of a limited asset, such as gold. Gridcoin is a long term project.