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Set up your own wallet and get rewarded for your research.
Your research payout, your wallet, your keys.
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.
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.
When BOINC finishes installing, you will be prompted to select a project to join. You are only rewarded for work completed under projects on the Gridcoin whitelist! Select a project of your choice.
After signing up, your BOINC client will begin downloading work. You should now navigate to the homepage of your chosen project, either through your BOINC client or a browser. Once there, log into your project account and join Team Gridcoin. This is vital to ensure you are paid for your research contributions.
There are several more things you can do to fine tune your BOINC client:
- If your PC has both a CPU and a GPU, ensure that you join at least one project that can make use of each.
- In your BOINC client settings, you are able to control when and how BOINC makes use of your computer. For example, you can tell BOINC to only do research if your computer is not in use.
- Some newer projects may not have been added to your BOINC client's project list. Be sure to check the Gridcoin whitelist for the latest changes in supported projects.
For many more tips to get the most out of your hardware, get involved in the Gridcoin community. There are many veteran members who are more than happy to help.
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.
Download the wallet installer that matches your operating system, be it Windows, Linux (opensuse/fedora), 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. Ensure you enter the same email address as you used to sign up for your BOINC project(s).
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. This is important, as your BOINC client needs to complete some work before you are able to register yourself as a researcher with the Gridcoin network.
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.
You are paid for any research done since your last payment every time you stake a block with your wallet. Blocks are staked using a Proof of Stake (POS) system, which means your chance to stake a block is determined soley by your balance. This means that you will need to acquire some seed funds.
The best place to acquire seed funds is through any major exchange, but there are also many people happy to trade Gridcoin for other goods such as hardware, STEAM keys, and many other things in the Gridcoin community forums.
If you do not wish to buy any seed funds, you can start by pool mining instead. With this set-up, the pool stakes on your behalf, so you can mine with a zero balance. You are able to switch between pool mining and solo mining at any point down the line.
To be paid for your research while mining solo, you will need to register with the Gridcoin network as a researcher. This is achieved through a process called 'sending a beacon'. As soon as your wallet has a balance above 1 GRC, and your BOINC client has completed some work, your wallet will automatically send a beacon to the network. This will cost 0.0011 GRC, which will be logged on your wallet overview page.
Once you have sent a beacon, it will be included in the next network superblock. Superblocks are special blocks in the blockchain that are due roughly every 24 hours, and update the network statistics. Therefore, it may take a while for your beacon to be confirmed by the rest of the network.
Assuming you have completed the above steps, you will be paid for your research when you next stake a block. Your chance to stake any block is equivalent to your wallet balance, divided by the total network balance. Therefore, if you wish to reduce the delay between payments, you will need to increase your balance.
Note that you will be paid fairly no matter how often you stake. A user that stakes every day will be paid for one day of research at a time, while a user who stakes weekly will be paid for their full week of research in that single stake.
Community Resources
Gridcoinstats Block Explorer
GRCPool Mining Pool
Gridcoin Wiki
Publication List
Subscribe to the Slack Channel
Dive right in and come talk with us: