GRCStarter@home

This proposal describes a project called GRCStarter@home. GRCStarter's operation is similar to that of WCG -- it is a single project that works on many projects. The difference between GRCStarter and WCG is in their priorities and how they distribute magnitude to their crunchers.

Priorities

• GRCStarter's overall computing objective is to support researchers or project heads with limited or sporadic Work Units (WU), or few volunteers working on their project.
• GRCStarter's second priority is to introduce new users to the different projects and how to choose the right one for their hardware.
• GRCStarter's third priority is to help new users build a base magnitude.
• GRCStarter's fourth priority is to educate new users on the inner workings of grid computing, BOINC, PoS, and DPoR.

Initiation and Operation

To initiate GRCStarter, a poll is started which contains proposals from researchers, project heads, and community members regarding which project's WU, called a Work Unit Set (WUS), to accept. This poll can be for any length of time. The top X number of WUS, let's say 10, get added to a WUS Ledger. With a complete WUS ledger, a month long poll is created with the options to vote for the 10 WUS in the ledger.

Crunch Units

GRCStarter splits the month -- the duration of the operating WUS Ledger -- into units of crunch time. It distributes these "Crunch Units" (CU) to a WUS based on the WUS's weight in the running poll. A WUS uses these CU to reserve crunch time on GRCStarter. When half of the month's CU are distributed, a poll is created to choose the WUS for the next month's ledger. This is similar to project rain, but has an economy contained within a single project instead of occupying the entire BOINC economy.

Magnitude Distribution

GRCStarter distributes equal magnitude to all hosts working on GRCStarter, regardless of a hosts relative RAC. This magnitude value is determined by giving all hosts a superblock RAC equal to the average RAC of GRCStarter. Hosts with high mags will be helping new users build their own magnitude. They will also be supporting projects that need help getting started or finishing a small amount of work.

User Experience

A new user will download, install, and set up the Gridcoin client. The user will download and install BOINC and sign up for the clearly marked GRCStarter@home project. GRCStarter's website is a hub of information for new users. Whitelisted projects are listed and described, and there is accessible, up to date information for helping people find the right project for their hardware. Further, explaining how GRCStarter works to new users will introduce them to RAC, Mag, WU, DPoR, and superblocks at the same time and in the same place. From GRCStarter, users can launch to other resources if they wish to learn more about the inner workings of Gridcoin.

Thank You For Your Feedback!

What do you think? What pros and cons to this proposal do you see? What risks? How does this compare to other proposals seeking the same goal - helping projects that need help and helping new users?

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The idea behind this proposal comes from Hive account@nightshift1134's post A New Project Called Rain.

This specific proposal stems from a conversation between @Vortac and myself which was sparked from a conversation on Hive account@dutch's post, Don't Give In to BTC FOMO - Why I am Buying GRC Instead

and ties into the continuing conversation from these posts:

1. Long Term Goal of Gridcoin by Hive account@applepiee
2. Response to Appliepiee's Post "Long term goal of gridcoin" by Hive account@jringo
3. My Thoughts on the Value of Gridcoin by Hive account@decayingzombie
4. The Value of Gridcoin - A Continuation... by Hive account@jringo

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NOTE: Read @applepiee's comment for discussion regarding the distribution protocol