Sometimes people make things just because they can. Does anyone really need a robot that's bad at spoon-feeding its owner soup, an ineffective medication that must be applied "directly to the forehead", or a one-piece swimsuit featuring a grinning Thanos? No. But that didn't stop these oddities' creators, and it didn't stop a developer from making a version of Windows XP run on blockchain, either.
CoinGeek reported earlier this week that a developer called "sh1zuku" managed to make certain parts of Windows XP run on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. That "SV" is short for "Satoshi's Vision," after the pseudonymous Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, and the cryptocurrency was created after Bitcoin was hard forked into Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Core. (And we thought keeping track of Wi-Fi versions was annoying.)
This version of Windows XP allows people to play Minesweeper, listen to select tracks via Winamp and create something with Paint. Other aspects of the operating system--including File Explorer and Internet Explorer--are essentially limited to a single page. Attempting to do pretty much anything else simply leads to an error; nobody's going to be able to use the site for more than its novelty value.
Other developers have emulated Windows XP via the web before. CoinGeek called particular attention to this project because it demonstrated the utility offered by Bitcoin SV's "ability to routinely handle blocks that are substantially larger than what are found with other blockchains." Bitcoin Core is limited to 1MB blocks; Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV were created specifically to increase block sizes.
We doubt this project will convince anyone of blockchain's potential, but it's an interesting proof of concept that might help people understand that blockchain technology doesn't have to be limited to cryptocurrencies. Besides, if people can get a kick out of a bunch of bad robots, they can probably find the fun in a Windows XP clone as well. It's better than wearing a Thanos-suit.