Summary of the Main Distribution Method (Folding@home)

Summary — Folding@home is a project focused on disease research. The problems they’re attempting to solve require many computer calcul­ations — and they need your help to find the cures! Currently Folding@home has accomplished 12% of their goal of 1 million ‘Folders’.

Folding@home Distribution Method Details

The mechanism maintains the requirements of that was mentioned above 1). Distribute fairly to thousands of people. 2). Ensure that the resources used to obtain TGM are not needlessly wasted. 3). Ensure technical stability and security during the distribution lifecycle.

Tangram is effectively utilising the Folding@home mechanism as a useful, socially edifying proof-of-work method for TGM distribution.

Breaking Down the Proposal(s)

Key areas of consideration

Number of users throughout the distribution lifecycle Number of coins possible for a user during distribution lifecycle Capital expenditure in order to obtain maximum amount of coins for an individual Approaches which individuals may take to ‘game the system’ Possible outcomes and risks of shorter / longer based distribution lifecycle

Defining properties:

110,246,994 TGM (60%) will be distributed through the Folding@home mechanism Distribution lifecycle of 3 months (72 days over a period of 12 weeks — minimum) 36,748,998.00 TGM total cap per month 1,531,200 TGM total cap per day Minimum Work Unit (WU) solving time of 1 hour of CPU usage (Maximum solving time is limited by the capacity of your hardware)

Month 1

382.8 TGM will be distributed per WU / per a full cycle of Folding@home

4000 WU’s will be solved per day

Month 2

191.40 TGM will be distributed per WU / per a full cycle of Folding@home

8000 WU’s will be solved per day

Month 3

127.602 TGM will be distributed per WU / per a full cycle of Folding@home

12,000 WU’s will be solved per day

Option 2 collection mechanism

Collection(s) will be divided equally amongst users everyday. (Day cap / users)

Potential captcha checkpoint collection

The table below represents the collection throughout the check-points when running the folding@home. (e.g. — electricity cut-outs, Windows installing updates, etc …)

Possible Captcha Checkpoints

Example — Checkpoint collection stages

Distribution per WU & # of WU’s achievable per day

Example — Distribution over time (Folding@home)

Graph interpretation

Each month an increase of WU’s are allowed, however the number of TGMs given per WU decreases. This is to ensure that a larger number of people are able to participate in the distribution

Time schedule

The following schedule has been developed to establish an equitable distribution. This schedule is subject to change based on further analysis and suggestion.

NOTE: All times are UTC

Example — Daily time schedule for distribution

Things to consider:

Daily start time (e.g. — 12:00 AM) — The start time the faucet will open. End time will be when either of 2 variables match:

24 hours have elapsed

MAX WU has been reached for daily cap

Rationale Behind the 3 Month Distribution Duration (minimum)

Robustness throughout a shorter distribution time (of the given mechanism) vs. for example a 6 month distribution lifecycle. Decrease in vulnerability of the folding@home mechanism. Elimination of long-term security risk for a long-term distribution lifecycle / period (risk is constant throughout the 3 months). Minimisation of the effects of volatility in community judgement (trust, shocks, patience & overall emotional well-being). or something else that ties community volatility to a positive outcome for a shorter timespan The expected obsolescence of the distribution mechanism(s) over a longer period of time. Diversification, which has different effects through short-term to long-term. Ensures that the network is not dependent on a small percentage of individuals. Provides stability and reduces volatility within the community during an important growth period of the network (infancy to adulthood).

Risk Factors

Not all TGM may be distributed during the distribution lifecycle Vulnerabilities and malicious usage may be found in the folding@home solution during the distribution life cycle that may impede the continued use of the distribution mechanism

Risk mitigation

Continued distribution of remaining TGM If not all TGM are distributed in a timely manner either during the day, month or end of the distribution lifecycle the following may apply: Burn remaining TGM Other mechanisms may be considered based on community suggestion(s) If vulnerabilities are discovered, Folding@home will no longer be utilised, and the Image and Description mechanism will be used as a fallback mechanism for continued distribution.

Folding@home security measures

Initial CoolCaptcha

The Initial CoolCaptcha uses a separate host and database. Included via JS into the main faucet site Each user is recognized by IP (stored as SHA256 hash) IP change will trigger error during solving process

Supported features:

Variable puzzle difficulty / count (depending on fail rate of user) Global puzzle difficulty Puzzle count Puzzle tile difficulty (style, size, etc.) can be altered

Login

Faucet database Each user is recognized by IP (stored as SHA256 hash) IP blacklist will be maintained

Checkpoints

Captcha checkpoint every n seconds. — m tries per user Total successful captcha checkpoints parameter k (e.g. 80% success rate of all checkpoints) - If the captcha checkpoints parameter k isn’t satisfied, no collection will be triggered or verifiable Captcha checkpoints can only be solved in the given time interval

Check of WU

After ALL captcha checkpoints are successfully solved the WU ID will be saved into the database and periodically checked by a cronjob.

How do collections get triggered?

Verification of completed WU’s daily associated with addresses All verified collections that have been noted as NOT malicious will be processed at the end of each week (This may change through the duration of the distribution lifecycle).

Summary of the Secondary Distribution Method (Image and Description)

Summary — Enter the description of the image that is being displayed. Works similar to Google’s Image reCaptcha annotation, however instead of annotating specific areas within an image, you describe the image being displayed.

Defining properties:

9,187,249.50 TGM (5%) will be distributed through the Image and description faucet mechanism Distribution lifecycle of 3 months (72 days over a period of 12 weeks) 3,062,416.5 TGM total cap per month 42,533.5625 TGM total cap per day

Distribution per successful image description & # of Images achievable per day

Example — Distribution over time (Image and Description faucet)

Graph interpretation

As the months go by, an increase of WU’s are allowed, however the number of TGMs given per WU decreases. This is to ensure that a larger number of people are able to participate in the distribution

Time schedule

The same time schedule will apply as per the main distribution cycle. (Subject to change based on non-working time as with the main distribution).

Things to consider:

Image and description captcha will be used in case of a failover of main distribution.

Image Captcha faucet security measures