Don't you just hate it when you're crunching away on BOINC, maxing out your hardware and then the next SuperBlock hits and your magnitude DECREASES?

I was so confused a couple weeks ago when I built my second rig (which I named "The Computable Hulk" and you should totally go read more about it HERE) and the first ~4 superblocks I was alternating between gaining magnitude one day and then losing magnitude the next day. I even hit up the GitHub for GridCoin and was promptly assured that if my magnitude decreased, it just means I'm losing ground versus all the new miners.

"BUT I JUST ADDED A RIG WITH THREE GTX 1080's!! YOU'RE TELLING ME I'M LOSING GROUND WITH THIS!?"

Don't get me wrong, my magnitude has soared overall with this second rig, but the competition is really heating up. Check out this BoincStats RAC graph of the GridCoin team over the last 60 days (the blue line is the official BOINC Rac):

Keep in mind that RAC alone doesn't give you a full picture of how much more computing power a team has, because different projects reward Cobblestones (BOINC credits) at different rates. For example, my contributions to PrimeGrid earn me more than 10x per day what my contributions to SETI@Home rewarded me.

I took a look at the BOINCStats team member movement page and GridCoin has acquired a total of 706 new miners since 3/29/2017. Of those 706 new miners, 234 of them have earned more than one million Cobblestones, which is a strong indicator that many of these miners have been sticking around.

Here's a chart showing the number of new users to the GridCoin team by day since 3/29/17. Notice the trend:

Frustrated by lower magnitude? Dont' be.

The good news is what while GridCoin total RAC has increased by 34% since 5/12/2017, the price of GridCoin has risen far more. The price of GridCoin on 5/12 was $0.039 USD while the price today (6/25/17) is $0.074 USD, a 90% increase.

That means even if we use the simplistic assumption that your magnitude using the same equipment is likely about 34% lower now than it was two months ago, the coins you're earning on your new lower magnitude are likely to be earning you more money (in FIAT exchange) than what you were earning with your higher magnitude before.

Will new miners always equal lower magnitude and a higher exchange rate?

Unfortunately that would be impossible to predict because it's always a "chicken or the egg" scenario. The current situation was driven by a renewed interest in CryptoCurrency led by BitCoin and Ethereum over this same ~two month period. This led to additional investment in GRC, which then led to an influx of new miners. The balance of mining capability versus GRC revenue is currently very good, I think. My two large rigs are currently achieving a 900 magnitude with ~200 GRC minted per day, which is worth about $450/month USD. My electricity to produce that much GRC costs around $100/month. I consider that to be pretty reasonable.

Now, if GridCoin lifts the team requirement soon, leading to a new influx of miners, I think that's uncharted territory. It will certainly lead to an increase in the GRC exchange price, but it is hard to determine how that balance between price/difficulty will hit the existing miners with the potential influx of thousands of new miners.

The good news is that the GridCoin community is already proactively discussing PoR (Proof of Research) rewards. I am confident that if mining becomes unprofitable, the community will act to adjust the PoR rewards in a smart way that keeps both the investors' and the miners' interests in balance.

Have you noticed your magnitude dropping in recent weeks? Can you confirm that your daily mining reward is higher (in exchanged GRC for your local FIAT terms) today than it was before? Let's chat in the comments.