This post is my first on Steemit about volunteer computing but it borrows heavily from things I wrote at Medium, in this Inverse.com article, and a Digg Dialog I did. If you are interested in the topics discussed below, please check out those articles or just stay tuned here for more! Or leave a comment saying what you'd like to hear more about.
If you BOINC, leave a note about your favorite projects!
What is Volunteer Computing?
Volunteer computing (often called distributed computing, but I view them as slightly different things) is a technology/concept that allows anyone to put their computers and other devices to work doing scientific research. Volunteers (like you?) can run software (like BOINC or World Community Grid) and feel better about themselves while they watch Netflix or take a nap knowing their computer and maybe their smartphone are helping research cures to childhood cancer, better solar cell materials, or the formation of galaxies.
Can my computer really make a difference?
Yes, right now, hundreds of thousands of people have an even larger number of devices crunching data for dozens of research projects. These computers contribute greater computational power than the world’s most powerful supercomputer (though it can only really compete on tasks that can be chopped up into millions of tiny pieces that can all be worked on independently). I’ve been doing volunteer computing for a long time and my computers have contributed years and years of computational effort to research on SETI, protein folding, Zika, cancer, AIDS, clean energy, neuroscience, and more. As a recent PhD, I can testify that funding for most researchers is tight these days and not everyone can afford lots of time on a supercomputer. By joining BOINC, you are enabling important research that could change the world, our health, and our understanding of the universe.
Where does the cryptocurrency come in?
Folks here seem to be really interested in cryptocurrency, so you might be interested to know that there are at least 3 coins that relate to research-boosting volunteer computing. As others here have pointed out, mining Bitcoin is incredibly wasteful. We put electricity in and only get BTC out, nothing else! The better our computers get, the more work/energy is required to mine one bitcoin. Bitcoin already uses as much electricity as some cities, and may use more than Denmark by 2020!
We really should be putting that computational power to better use! Luckily there’s Gridcoin (and Curecoin and others) that use useful computations that benefit scientific research to mine coins. I’ll focus on Gridcoin here (and in later posts), because I believe it is more flexible in terms of what projects can be worked on now and in the future. In fact, Gridcoin not only incentivizes volunteer computing using BOINC, it incentivizes volunteering for lesser known projects that could really use the help. It doesn’t hurt that Gridcoin is also doing well these days and is currently trading for 15-20X what it was three months ago.
I plan on writing more about the topics in the future, but in the meantime:
Join projects
And 3. Get into Gridcoin either as a miner, investor, or both!
Here is a good resource for getting started: https://www.reddit.com/r/gridcoin/
