Gridcoin

Last updated

Gridcoin
Gridcoin Logo.svg
Denominations
PluralGridcoins
CodeGRC
Precision10−8
Subunits
1100000000halford
Development
Original author(s)Rob Halförd [1]
White paper Gridcoin: The Computation Power of a Blockchain Driving Science & Data Analysis
Implementation(s)Gridcoin-Research
Latest release 5.4.8.0-hotfix-1 / July 4, 2024;2 months ago (2024-07-04) [2]
Code repository github.com/gridcoin-community/Gridcoin-Research
Development statusActive
Project fork of Bitcoin, Peercoin [3]
Written in C++
Operating system Windows, Linux, macOS
Developer(s) Gridcoin Community
Source modelOpen source
License MIT License [3]
Ledger
Timestamping scheme Proof-of-stake
Block reward10 GRC [4]
Block explorer gridcoinstats.eu/block
Website
Website gridcoin.us

Gridcoin (abbreviation: GRC) is an open source cryptocurrency which securely rewards volunteer computing performed on the BOINC network. [1] [5] [6] [7] Originally developed to support SETI@home, [8] it became the platform for many other applications in areas as diverse as medicine, molecular biology, mathematics, linguistics, climatology, environmental science, and astrophysics. [9]

Gridcoin requires a significant level of skill in order to begin "crunching". Despite this, Gridcoin's ability to monetise idle computing time towards "crunching" can modestly help with reducing digital divide and incentivise the public to donate their CPU time towards scientific research. [10] [7]

It was created on October 16, 2013, by Rob Halförd. Gridcoin, initially using the energy-intensive proof of work - as used by Bitcoin, before migrating to a proof of stake protocol in 2014, similar to Peercoin, in an attempt to address the environmental impact of cryptocurrency mining. [1] [11] [12]

An exploit was demonstrated in August 2017 that revealed the emails of Gridcoin users and allowed the theft of other users work. The research team disclosed the vulnerability to the developers in September 2016, and the patch for the vulnerability was released in March 2017 with version 3.5.8.7, however the implementation of the fix introduced other issues. [13]

The implementation Gridcoin-Research was created as a fork of Bitcoin and Peercoin and is licensed under the MIT License. [3] It uses Qt 5 for its user interface [14] and prebuilt executables of the wallet are distributed for Windows, macOS, and Debian. [2]

5.3.2.0 of Gridcoin-Research Grc-wallet-5230.jpg
5.3.2.0 of Gridcoin-Research

Related Research Articles

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References

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