Pool Mining

Setting up BOINC

What is BOINC?

BOINC is an open-source, distributed computing platform developed at the University of California, Berkeley and designed to support volunteer computing. It enables researchers to distribute their research workload across a globally distributed network of computers owned by volunteers. Gridcoin rewards your volunteer research work done on the BOINC platform.

Installing BOINC

Navigate to the BOINC homepage and download the BOINC client installer. You will be prompted to select a standard BOINC installer, or an installer packaged with VirtualBox. Virtual Box is required for a small subset of research projects.

When the installer has finished downloading, run the executable and follow the onscreen instructions. Unless you are confident with editing directory paths later, install BOINC in its default directories.

Do not attach any projects at this stage.

Setting up the GRC Wallet

What is the Wallet?

The Gridcoin wallet works a lot like the wallet you use on a daily basis. While it does not hold your coins themselves (these are stored on the blockchain), the wallet holds the keys that allow you to access your coins. The wallet also enables you to receive and send payments.

Furthermore, the wallet is your gateway to taking part in the official side of the Gridcoin community. It allows you to vote in polls, as well as begin your own poll such as a funding request for development work, or a change to the project whitelist.

Installing the Wallet

Download the wallet installer that matches your operating system, be it Windows, Linux (opensuse/fedora) or Linux (debian/ubuntu) or Mac OS.

When the installer has downloaded, run the installer and follow the onscreen instructions to install the Gridcoin wallet. When the installation is complete, run the wallet, which will prompt you for an email address. As you are mining with the pool, you can skip this step.

You will now need to download the blockchain. Select 'rebuild blockchain' and then 'download blocks'. Your wallet will begin to sync with the network, which will take a long time. If you are on a slower internet connection, the download may also appear to hang at 99%. Be patient, and let the wallet do its thing.

During this syncing process, BOINC should continue to work away in the background. The pool will collect any earnings on your behalf.

Backing up Your Wallet

It is vital that you regularly back up your wallet. Under a default Windows install, the wallet can be found in the directory C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\GridcoinResearch. The file containing your Gridcoin keys is wallet.dat.

Ensure that you keep a copy of this file somewhere safe, on a different hard drive. If you lose all copies of your wallet.dat file, there is no way you, or anyone else, will ever be able to access your Gridcoin again.

Withdrawing Your Earnings from the Pool

In your wallet, navigate to the 'receive coins' tab and copy your wallet address.

In your browser, navigate to the main page of your pool account and find the 'earnings' field. Set your GRC address to the address you just copied from your wallet.

The pool will automatically send you the GRC you have earned every 24 hours, provided you are owed more than 1 GRC by the pool at this time. Payments will show up in the overview tab of your wallet.

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