Thoughts on GRC [001] – Introduction
Thoughts on GRC [001] – Introduction
I used to run SETI@home in 1999 and joined Folding@home in 2000 as well. When BOINC was released in 2002 it was another interesting project that got me all excited. However around 2006 my life changed a lot and my focus shifted heavily towards other aspects of life.
About a month ago I stumbled upon a reddit post about Gridcoin and it reintroduced me to BOINC. Needless to say I’m all in again because it simply is awesome. The altruistic concept is genious imho: people basically donate resources (electricity + hardware -> CPU/GPU) in order to help out scientists with their research – who otherwise would have to purchase hardware themselves and run projects locally or rely on cloud computing which can be expensive – and thus reducing costs since budgets are mostly limited.
Gridcoin introduces a very interesting aspect to this: it rewards (semi) altruistic people for sharing their resources with scientists, thus creating an additional incentive to run BOINC projects. One can argue about the nature of this relationship and how it should be judged compared to the classic BOINC user who is not interested in a reward system – and I certainly would like to have this discussion another time – yet, it is interesting to see how Team Gridcoin’s computations have had high positive impact on the progress of some projects.
I think it is fair to say that bringing GRC to the table as a reward for donating hardware and energy, has convinced a few people (who might not have done so before due to lack of motivation) to join the ranks of the miners. But it also displays a very known fact: humans in general are not altruistic – something that I consider to be a major flaw within our species – and the collaboration of BOINC and Gridcoin certainly shows that there needs to be some sort of incentive to even consider contributing to such a beautiful and very essential project like BOINC.
So while some people simply decide to become part of this for various reasons, there sure are some who like the fact that they can make a profit with GRC, either by pool/solo mining or by trading on various exchanges, using GRC as an entry-level currency that can be mined fairly easy and also doesn’t involve many risks – unlike some other coins that turned out to be scams one way or another. But no matter why people chose GRC and what they do with it, there are a few aspects that might also keep people away from GRC.
Thus, in this series (Thoughts on GRC) I will try to give an overview of what I think is currently holding back the BOINC-GRC-symbiosis and offer different ideas and concepts that may (or may not) have a positive impact on this collaboration. My focus will be on Gridcoin for now because that is currently what I have more insight into being a newbie miner – but also because I still need to catch up a lot more on BOINC-related topics before I feel comfortable discussing its core concept.
With all this in mind, I would like to invite everyone to discuss and criticize my thoughts throughout this series. Hopefully we can have a really constructive discourse leading to better solutions of current issues and further optimizations to improve the overall BOINC-GRC-experience for as many people as possible.
ʕ༼◕ ౪ ◕✿༽ʔ
This post will serve as an index, linking to all future articles of this series.
Thoughts on GRC [002] – How the user experience could be improved (1)
Thoughts on GRC [003] – How the user experience could be improved (2)
[Thoughts on GRC [004] –] ()
[Thoughts on GRC [005] –] ()
[Thoughts on GRC [006] –] ()
Well articulated, and I will certainly keep an eye out for your future entries.
With respect to some 'traditional' BOINC users not caring for a rewards system - they do not have to actually cash out the GRC they mine. In fact, one could argue a miner could help BOINC by, for example, donating any mined GRC to the faucets to encourage further adoption. Even just increasing competition on the POR side of the coin should drive up the GRC price, and thus result in increased interest in the coin.
Both will increase the volunteer compute available to BOINC projects, which is good for the entire ecosystem and society as a whole.
FYI your last link points to the incorrect article. =)
Content to pt. (2) is not online yet since I need to go over it a few more times. I expected it to displayed as something like [text] (). Will edit to avoid confusion :)
I agree with you: cashing out is not the only option and re-investing is even better because it has a long-term positive effect ont the BOINC/GRC symbiosis. When looking at user motivation it is far more complex, since it is more of a spectrum than distinct categories.
However, throughout the series I'll probably focus more on non-/semi-altruistic miners because they are more likely to jump ship. The idea of this series is to provide solutions that create long-term incentive for those people in particular.
But even if we won't be very successful with these attempts, it will certainly benefit everyone who decides to stay for whatever reasons. Thus, I'm trying to include ideas that have a long-term positive effect on BOINC/GRC.
If I'm not mistaken you are planning to have your own projects become part of the BOINC/GRC symbiosis. It would be really interesting to hear your opinion on [002] if you have the time for some in-depth discussions during the next few weeks :)
Bear in mind that the Gridcoin team makes up less than 1% of the total active BOINC userbase, the majority of the BOINC community does it entirely for free.
I'm aware of that :) I'll write another article on BOINC users only and possible strategies to make GRC more interesting for them. I still need to talk to some people first before I can start to write it.