Wishing you guys and girls a fantastic new year from the dateline. Gridcoin has progressed in leaps and bounds, and I expect 2018 will be the year where we break out of obscurity and into the mainstream. The time of BTC is ending, as a combination of the uncertainty around Tether and the mounting power consumption of the network take hold. Likewise, our scientists are in a position to carry humanity forward at a rate never seen before, if we can only provide them with the compute power to complete their work.

Gridcoin is at the forefront of something amazing, and we are all a part of it.

As it stands, we have around 10,000 people 'mining' GRC, with more joining at an exponential rate! We lead in every BOINC project we take part in, and the other teams have all but given up hope in competing with us. We will never lose the #1 spot on the non-ASIC BOINC charts!

Some things to look forward to in 2018 for our community:

Around the time you read this, a massive weather system is forming over GPUGrid, courtesy of @vortac. I hope you have been building your RAC and put out your buckets, because TEN THOUSAND GRC is about to come barreling down. If you are in the pool - no worries! You will still receive a share of the rain.

Major release 3.7.0.0 is just around the corner, which will bring with it a host of features and bug fixes. You can look forward to increased stability, greater functionality, and a much cleaner and more streamlined code base. For the full list of changes, visit the GitHub changelog here.

Increased buy pressure, as whales begin to hoard GRC because they know full well we are majorly undervalued. Out of the research coins, GRC is the most obscure by a mile, yet the only one standing on a functioning platform with 2 decades of development under its belt! GNT is based on a concept with half a beta to show for it, SONM is DOA, while Gridcoin is busy proving the Milky Way is corrugated, and curing Zika. Look at the buy walls going up:

So far we have smashed the competition when it comes to the science, but have largely neglected our marketing - no more! Just days ago, @vortac announced the Gridcoin Joint Marketing Initiative 2018, which aims to remedy this issue permanently. This initiative is going to carry us into the mainstream. We have the compute power. We have the results to show for it. Now we need to tell people about it.

By the end of 2018 I predict at least 50,000 members and a USD$1 coin. Don't sell your holdings short!