Mining for cryptocurrencies isn’t just gobbling up capacity on electrical grids around the world, it might also be slowing the search for extraterrestrial life.

Mining cryptos like Bitcoin require miners to solve wickedly complex mathematical puzzles to validate each transaction. For their efforts, miners receive a small payment for each puzzle they solve, but the process requires a crapload of computing power. To reap profits, miners rely on graphics processing units (GPUs) that are high