Intro

Gridcoin is one of the most ethical cryptocurrencies around, using your idle computing power for scientific research. In this post, I would like to propose the slightly counter-intuitive idea that there might be a good way to support the coin (and hence the research that is eventually done) without offering your computer's processing power.

The idea

It all started with a simple calculation of my electricity costs. I am only using my laptop to run BOINC, so the first step is to search online for my computer and find its power consumption. I found mine here to be 20W/h. I then checked my electricity cost here (or from your electricity bill) and finally I put all these numbers in the energy use calculator.

The verdict comes out to be about $4 per month in electricity cost, which at current prices (0.05$/GRC) is about 80GRC. At the same time, my computing generates about 25GRC from proof of research. The mathematics are therefore simple: I am not covering my electricity cost.

This is of course fine, because many of gridcoin holders (including myself) are running BOINC to help the research being done, but it made me think:
Let's take the number of GRC that end up in my wallet every month as a measure of how much I have supported the BOINC research that month. How can I maximise this number? Right now, the number is +25GRC. How can I do better than that (while keeping the same cost to myself)?

The answer is of course very simple. Stop running BOINC completely and buy $4 worth of GRC every month, which will give me a +80GRC rather than a +25GRC at the same cost.

Objections

I can already hear the objections rising: "This is not helping science, you are not even doing any useful calculations!", but as a matter of fact, I think it does. A constant demand for GRC every month, like the one I propose, will (eventually) increase the price of the coin and this steady increase will bring in more people with computing power willing to produce via proof of research. The question is "Can you really convince yourself that you are actually helping science more through this indirect approach?"

I understand that simply buying the coin monthly is not as engaging (or as addictive!) as running BOINC. However, the simple measure of how many coins my wallet is "producing" every month tells me that it is actually a superior method, so that is what I will be doing from now on. The situation for me (this depends on your electricity costs) will be reversed once the price surpasses (0.16$/GRC). At that point, I will be helping science more by not buying any more and turning my processors on instead.

Comments

What I propose is quite counter-intuitive, but I think the analysis is sound. I would love therefore to hear comments from others in the community. Are you convinced? Will you do the same? If not, why? Debate is welcome.

Thanks for reading!