Scientific, ethical cryptocurrencies: Primecoin, Gridcoin, Foldingcoin, Curecoin and others

I decided to make a quick list and comparison of some cryptocurrencies that contribute to scientific research. It is well known that the Bitcoin protocol wastes a lot of computing power and electricity in order to calculate SHA-256 hashes. These calculations have no purpose other than to secure the Bitcoin blockchain.

Below are listed some of the top scientific cryptocurrencies that are more ethical to mine than bitcoin. All of the coins listed below utilize a part of your computing power for scientific use rather than just pointless SHA-256 calculations.

By mining these coins you can contribute to:

• Astronomy: creating a map of the Milky Way, calculating asteroid paths
• Mathematics & cryptography: finding prime number chains
• Medicinal research: cures for Zika, Ebola, AIDS
• Genealogy: finding cancer genes, mapping the human genome
  ...among other things!

The coins are ordered by their coinmarketcap.com ranking.

Full disclosure: I own ~250 USD worth of Gridcoin and a tiny amount of DCP. I do not own any of the other coins. Of these coins, my personal favourite is Gridcoin. But I tried to be objective in writing this list. I think mining any of these coins is a better use for your computing power than mining Bitcoin.

Please comment if you spot a mistake or have something to add!

Primecoin http://primecoin.io/

• Today's coinmarketcap.com ranking: 199
• Decentralized cryptocurrency
• Uses CPU only, GPU miner is under construction
• Research software: primecoind
• Research topic is mathematics: searching for prime numbers

Gridcoin https://gridcoin.us/

• Today's coinmarketcap.com ranking: 380
• Decentralized cryptocurrency with it's own blockchain
• Big list of projects to choose from, including medical, astronomy and mathematics
• Research software: BOINC
• Wallet / proof-of-stake mining software: gridcoinresearchd
• Blockchain is secured by Proof-of-Stake
• 2 pools available: https://grcpool.com, https://grc.arikado.ru/
• Uses GPU and CPU
• You can research also on android
• Can be double-mined with DCP

Foldingcoin https://foldingcoin.net/

• Today's coinmarketcap.com ranking: 551
• Centralized Counterparty token
• Uses the Bitcoin blockchain
• Research software: Folding@Home
• All funds are held by the team until rewarded to miners
• Cell phones not supported
• Uses GPU only
• Research topics are medical/biological: cures for cancer, Alzheimer's, and many other viral diseases
• Can be double-mined with Curecoin

Curecoin http://curecoin.net/

• Today's coinmarketcap.com ranking: 572
• Decentralized cryptocurrency with it's own blockchain
• Blockchain is secured by Proof-of-Stake and SHA-256
• ~20% of Curecoin rewards are allocated to SHA-256 miners
• Research software: Folding@Home
• 2 pools available
• Uses GPU only
• Research topics are medical/biological: cures for cancer, Alzheimer's, and many other viral diseases
• Can be double-mined with Foldingcoin

Riecoin http://riecoin.org/

• Today's coinmarketcap.com ranking: 734
• Decentralized cryptocurrency with it's own blockchain
• Uses CPU only, GPU miner is under construction
• Research software: riecoin (wallet client), rminerd
• Research topic is mathematics: searching for prime numbers
• Riecoin team argues that Primecoin produces pseudoprimes while Riecoin produces only primes

DCC (Distributed Compute Credit) https://kingsds.network/

• Not listed on coinmarketcap.com
• Was known as SPARC before name change in 2018
• Uses the Ethereum blockchain, is an ERC20 token
• Big list of projects to choose from, including medical, astronomy and mathematics
• Research software: BOINC
• Can be double-mined with Gridcoin

Thanks for reading!

Again, please comment! Especially if you spot a mistake or have some additional info!

Updates to this article:

• 2018-07-20: Various small fixes
• 2018-07-20: Added Riecoin. Updated coinmarketcap rankings of all coins