Below is a working draft for a new Github wiki. The Github wiki is a, if not the main resource for anyone wanting to contribute to Gridcoin and desperately needs to be updated. Please help me finish it up. If you want to help reach out on discord or slack. If you're in slack, join #wiki-contrib for a link to the gdoc.

Note: This is a script conversion from the gdoc to markdown and probably has a number of formatting errors. The content is accurate.

Gridcoin Research

Introduction

Gridcoin is a dual-incentive open-source blockchain. Incentive one, stake rewards, rewards participants for securing the ledger through a proof-of-stake protocol. Incentive two, research rewards, rewards participants for contributing to approved projects hosted on the distributed computing infrastructure, BOINC.

BOINC, the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, hosts major institutional computing

projects such as IBM's World Community Grid, SETI, and data from the Large Hadron Collider, alongside projects developed by students, enthusiasts, mathematicians, researchers, and citizen scientists.

More information on BOINC can be found at [X,Y,Z].

The Gridcoin whitepaper can be found at:

https://gridcoin.us/assets/img/whitepaper.pdf

General Info

Blockchain

Genesis Block: October 11th, 2014

Algorithm: PoS v10 [link]

Block spacing: 90 Seconds

Premined: 0% - Initial distribution based on Proof-of-Burn from Gridcoin Classic



Economics

Supply: 400 million+ GRC

Inflation by Stake Rewards: 0.85%-

Inflation by Research Rewards: 2.56%-



Blockchain

The Gridcoin blockchain is secured through a proof-of-stake protocol. Blockchain security incentives come in the form of a 10 GRC reward per block.

Details on much of the PoS economics can be found in the blue paper section "Expected Time to Stake and Net Weight."

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NwEBSKuG2IvZXPvzbTEvZLpaN2JCP_nK/view

Incentive

The Gridcoin ledger issues GRC for two tasks. Stake rewards incentivize participants to contribute to ledger security. Research rewards incentivize participants to contribute to distributed computing tasks hosted on approved BOINC projects.

Total GRC Minted per Day: ~37,600 GRC static target

Ratio of Stake-mint to Research-mint: 25:75 static

Monetary Inflation by network: 3.41% disinflation; 2.48% after 10 years

Stake Rewards

Stake rewards were set to a static "constant block reward" protocol in October 2018. Every block staked mints a set number of GRC for the staker. This incentive is intended to encourage network participants to maintain an active balance on the network, thereby increasing network security.

Mint: 10 GRC per block; 9,600 GRC per day static target

Monetary Inflation by Stake-mint: 0.85% disinflation; 0.79% after 10 years



Research Rewards

Research rewards are distributed based on a predetermined daily pool of GRC. The pool is divided among contributors to approved BOINC projects based on the relative contributions of participants and the relationship of computation contributions among projects.

Mint: Target 28,000 GRC per target 26 hour interval

Monetary Inflation by Research-mint: 2.56% disinflation; 2.08% after 10 years



Formula

Whitelist

The Gridcoin whitelist is a subledger of network approved BOINC projects. Only contributions to whitelisted projects will count toward a participant's earned research rewards. Projects are added to the whitelist through a process which involves project willingness, security and validation checks, and a network poll. Projects are removed from the whitelist by failing to provide work, failing a security or validation check, or through a network poll.

Included in the whitelist mechanism is an intermediary subledger called the Greylist. The Greylist is intended to reserve a project's whitelisted status in the event that the project temporarily suspend work or otherwise go offline.

The whitelist subledger is stored in Gridcoin superblocks.

Details on both the whitelist and greylist are compiled at:

https://gridcoin.ddns.net

Team Requirement

To receive GRC for BOINC contributions, a participant must join the Gridcoin BOINC team. The intent of the team requirement is to simplify participant stats collection.

Continuing developments to the Gridcoin protocol seem to be rendering the team requirement obsolete, though there are no solid plans to remove the requirement in the near future.

BOINC Credits and RAC

BOINC issues BOINC credits to participants for completed work. RAC is the Recent Average Credit of a participant. RAC is defined by BOINC and serves as a smoothed contribution curve. It is utilized to determine a participant's magnitude.

Formula:

RAC(new) = RAC(old)d(t) + (1-d(t))credit(new)**

Where d(t) = e^(-ln(2)t / 604800)*

and t is the time (in seconds) since the last RAC recalculation.

Magnitude

Magnitude is the mechanism which translates participant RAC to earned research rewards, or GRC owed. Magnitude is determined through a calculation involving a participant's contribution to a project relative to other participants contributing to that same project, the number of whitelisted projects, and a targeting "magnitude unit".

Formula

Research Savings Account (RSA)

A participant's earned research rewards is calculated every twenty-six hours with a superblock(described in section <x.xx>). That data is stored in the participant's research savings account (RSA). A participant's RSA is associated with a beacon (described in section <x.xx>) for as long as that beacon is kept active.

Receiving Earned Research Rewards

A participant receives the earned research rewards stored in their RSA when they stake a block.

Technologies

The Gridcoin protocol is comprised of mechanisms from several proven blockchains along with several unique mechanisms developed to fulfill Gridcoin's function.

The "Neural Net" and the Superblock

The "Neural Net" is the process which outputs a superblock. A superblock contains data pertaining to projects (RAC), participant contributions to these projects (magnitude), and other participant information such as their associated beacon and RSA information.

Beacons

Beacons tie a participant's wallet with their BOINC account. Beacons must be renewed every five to six months.

Scraper

The scraper is a tool which collects participant data from approved BOINC projects. It is intended to lessen the load on project servers while maintaining decentralized BFT.

Organization and Community

Gridcoin is organized into two groups: development and operation.

Development is organized as a contribution and reputation based meritocracy. Those who contribute the most maintain the most power. Final decisions, when necessary, are made by the longest standing developer after deliberation.

Operation is organized in a top down hierarchical structure determined by legacy. Those who maintain power are given access to more power. Final decisions, when necessary, are made, after deliberation, by those who have maintained power the longest.

Voting

The Gridcoin ledger is capable of organizing and storing polling information. There are several ways to organize this information:

By Stake - Each GRC is weighted as 1 By Magnitude - Each magnitude is weighted as 1 By Stake and Magnitude - Each GRC is weighted as 1 and each magnitude is weighted as a calculation involving total stake, total magnitude, and a constant to determine the desired stake to magnitude weight ratio By Beacon - Each beacon is weighted as 1 By Wallet - Each wallet is weighted as 1

Voting is used to inform development and operation decisions.

Community

The Gridcoin community exists across multiple platforms, many of which are linked under "Resources".

Main protocol development takes place on the Gridcoin development repo while community development and assets are hosted on the community repo.

FAQ

How long does it take for my RAC/MAG to level out after starting up?

https://www.reddit.com/r/gridcoin/comments/9on87y/how_long_does_it_take_for_my_racmag_to_level_out/e7vftj9/

How long to earn POR rewards with x amount staked?

https://www.reddit.com/r/gridcoin/comments/a51ne4/how_long_to_earn_por_rewards_with_x_amount_staked/

How big is the Gridcoin network?

https://www.reddit.com/r/gridcoin/comments/afjvg4/the_size_of_the_gridcoin_network/

Formulas

RAC

RAC(new) = RAC(old)d(t) + (1-d(t))credit(new)**

Where d(t) = e^(-ln(2)t / 604800)*

and t is the time (in seconds) since the last Recent Average Credit recalculation.

Notable Roles

The following is a current list of volunteers carrying out roles in the Gridcoin community.

Development

Core Developers

Rob Halförd (@gridcoin) - Founder

Marco Nilsson (@ravon) - Lead Developer

Paul Jensen (@ifoggz) - Developer

Tomas Brod (@brod) - Developer

James Owens (@jamescowens) - Developer

Client Builds

Richard Leckinger (@caraka) - Ubuntu/Debian

Acey (@acey1) - macOS

Martin Schimandl (@Git-Jiro) - macOS

Albert Mikaelyan (@Tahvok) - AUR

NeuralMiner (@NeuralMiner) - Chocolatey

Matthias Bach (@theMarix) - openSUSE/Fedora

Whitelist Administrator

Tobias Becke (@quezacoatl)

Testnet Coordinator

Barton26 (@barton26)

Exchange Coordinator / Point of Contact

NeuralMiner (@NeuralMiner)

Management

Operators

Social Media

Twitter

Tobias Becke (@quezacoatl)

CM (@cm)

Noah Blaker (@Noah Blaker)

NeuralMiner (@NeuralMiner)

Jringo (@jringo)

Anonymouse (@an0n)

Barton26 (@barton26)

Geebell (@geebell)

Vortac (@vortac)

Facebook

Geebell (@geebell)

Instagram

Anonymouse (@an0n)

Community Websites

Gridcoin Community Website

https://gridcoin.us

Web Developers

CM (@cm)

Barton26 (@barton26)

Block Explorers

Gridcoin Stats

https://www.gridcoinstats.eu

Owner

Startail (@startail)

GRC Explorer

https://grcexplorer.neuralminer.io/

Owner

NeuralMiner (@NeuralMiner)

Live Community Forums

Gridcoin Community Hangout

Organizer

fkinglag (@fkinglag)

Schedule

Saturdays @ 7pm UTC

Location

Gridcoin Mumble Information: Label: Gridcoin Address: 207.148.10.181 Port: 64738 Username: Enter your username, try to pick one people will recognize you by - i.e. your IRC username

The Fireside Chat

Organizer

jringo (@jringo)

Hosts

jringo

ilikechocolate

Thegoblinpopper

Schedule

Thursdays @ 8pm EST

Location

Gridcoin Discord in #the-fireside channel

Privileges

The following is a list of "People with Power". These people have been trusted with access to important accounts.

Master Key Holders

Tobias Becke (@quezacoatl), gh/quez

Marco Nilsson (@ravon)

Paul Jensen (@ifoggz)

Gridcoin on Github

https://github.com/gridcoin-community

CM (@cm, gh/grctest)

Marco Nilsson (@ravon), gh/denravonska

NeuralMiner (@NeuralMiner), gh/NeuralMiner

Tomas Brod (@brod), gh/Tomáš

Other Contributors

Sebastian Kung (@TheCharlatan) - wallet development @huppdiwupp

Resources

Repos

Source: https://github.com/gridcoin-community/Gridcoin-Research

Community Development: https://github.com/gridcoin-community

Main Resources

Websites:

https://gridcoin.us

Block Explorers:

https://gridcoinstats.eu

Whitelist and Project Viability:

https://gridcoin.ddns.net

Social Media, Chats, and Forums

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