Cool experiment, thanks for sharing!
On the subject of seeing changes with the crash, my guess is that projects like VGTU will see more of a hit than a project like Einstein or SETI. I say this because Einstein and SETI have a more universal appeal, and I think people are more likely to run them purely for fun. VGTU, while absolutely a good science based project, is a little harder (for me) to get excited about. Their current project is grillage optimization, which I doubt many non Civil Engineers care much about. This would perhaps be an interesting thing to track.
Looking forward to seeing more!
RE: The Gridcoin mining experiment - will the crash have influence