Gridcoin Explained

Currency Name:Gridcoin
Image 1:Gridcoin Logo.svg
Alt1:Gridcoin Logo
Subunit Name 3:Japanese: halford|italic=no
Ticker Symbol:GRC
Plural:Gridcoins
Precision:10−8
White Paper:Gridcoin: The Computation Power of a Blockchain Driving Science & Data Analysis
Implementations:Gridcoin-Research
Status:Active
Latest Release Version:5.4.6.0
Latest Release Date:[1]
Project Fork Of:Bitcoin, Peercoin[2]
Programming Languages:C++
Operating System:Windows, Linux, macOS
Author:Rob Halförd[3]
Developer:Gridcoin Community
Source Model:Open source
License:MIT License
Timestamping:Proof-of-stake
Block Reward:10 GRC[4]

Gridcoin (abbreviation: GRC) is an open source cryptocurrency which securely rewards volunteer computing performed on the BOINC network.[5] [6] [7] Originally developed to support SETI@home,[8] it became the platform for many other applications in areas as diverse as medicine, molecular biology, mathematics, linguistics, climatology, environmental science, and astrophysics.[9]

Gridcoin requires a significant level of skill in order to begin "crunching". Despite this, Gridcoin's ability to monetise idle computing time towards "crunching" can modestly help with reducing digital divide and incentivise the public to donate their CPU time towards scientific research.[10] [7]

It was created on October 16, 2013, by Rob Halförd. Gridcoin, initially using the energy-intensive proof of work - as used by Bitcoin, before migrating to a proof of stake protocol in 2014, similar to Peercoin, in an attempt to address the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining.[11] [12]

An exploit was demonstrated in August 2017 that revealed the emails of Gridcoin users and allowed the theft of other users work. The research team disclosed the vulnerability to the developers in September 2016, and the patch for the vulnerability was released in March 2017 with version 3.5.8.7, however the implementation of the fix introduced other issues.[13]

The implementation Gridcoin-Research was created as a fork of Bitcoin and Peercoin and is licensed under the MIT License. It uses Qt 5 for its user interface[14] and prebuilt executables of the wallet are distributed for Windows, macOS, and Debian.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Releases - gridcoin-community/Gridcoin-Research . 4 March 2024 . GitHub.
  2. Web site: License on Github. live. https://web.archive.org/web/20230528152100/https://github.com/gridcoin-community/Gridcoin-Research/blob/development/COPYING. 28 May 2023. 30 June 2023. GitHub. en.
  3. Book: Hijfte, Stijn Van . Blockchain Platforms: A Look at the Underbelly of Distributed Platforms . 6 July 2020 . 9781681738925 . 145 . Morgan & Claypool Publishers . 4 May 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210511164741/https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Blockchain_Platforms/IivxDwAAQBAJ?q=Rob+Half%C3%B6rd&gbpv=1#f=false . 11 May 2021 . live.
  4. Web site: Network Blocks . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20200614073218/https://gridcoinstats.eu/block . 14 June 2020 . 31 October 2020 . Gridcoinstats.
  5. Book: Dong . Zhongli . 2015 IEEE 7th International Conference on Cloud Computing Technology and Science (Cloud Com) . Lee . Young Choon . Zomaya . Albert Y . 2015 . 978-1-4673-9560-1 . 266 . Crowdware: A Framework for GPU-Based Public-Resource Computing with Energy-Aware Incentive Mechanism . 10.1109/CloudCom.2015.73 . 6852894.
  6. Book: Kent . Peter . Cryptocurrency Mining For Dummies . Bain . Tyler . 2019 . Wiley . 9781119579472 . 320.
  7. Book: Elena Guerrero-Roldán . Ana . Engineering data-driven adaptive trust-based e-assessment systems : challenges and infrastructure solutions . Baneres . David . Elena Rodriguez . M. . 2020 . Springer International Publishing . 9783030293260 . Cham, Switzerland . 144.
  8. News: A Brief History of SETI@Home . Scoles . Sarah. The Atlantic. 2017-06-01. en-US. 2017-05-23. https://web.archive.org/web/20170523153545/https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/05/aliens-on-your-packard-bell/527445/. live.
  9. Web site: Projects - BOINC Projects . 2022-08-29 . boincsynergy.ca . en . live . 2022-08-28 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220828222950/https://boincsynergy.ca/wiki/index.php/Projects.
  10. Kreitem . Hanna M. . Ragnedda . Massimo . 2020-06-10 . Distributed pool mining and digital inequalities, From cryptocurrency to scientific research . Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society . en . 18 . 3 . 339–355 . 10.1108/JICES-02-2020-0018 . 219647192 . 1477-996X.
  11. Web site: 12 December 2017 . Bitcoin mining likely uses more energy than it takes to keep New Zealand's lights on . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20210108203932/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-12/bitcoin-mining-likely-uses-more-energy-than-nz-electricity/9246888 . 8 January 2021 . 4 May 2021 . Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
  12. Book: Kondru . Kiran Kumar . Saranya . R. . Chacko . Annamma . Advances in Distributed Computing and Machine Learning . A Review of Distributed Supercomputing Platforms Using Blockchain . Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems . 2021 . Tripathy . Asis Kumar . Sarkar . Mahasweta . Sahoo . Jyoti Prakash . Li . Kuan-Ching . Chinara . Suchismita . en . Singapore . Springer . 127 . 123–133 . 10.1007/978-981-15-4218-3_13 . 978-981-15-4217-6. 224845754 .
  13. Grothe . Martin . Niemann . Tobias . Somorovsky . Juraj . Schwenk . Jörg . 2017-08-14 . Breaking and fixing gridcoin . Proceedings of the 11th USENIX Conference on Offensive Technologies . WOOT'17 . USA . USENIX Association . 14 . .
  14. Web site: Gridcoin-Research/build-unix.md at development · gridcoin-community/Gridcoin-Research . 21 July 2021 . GitHub . en.

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