What Is BOINC and How Even You Can Help to Find a Cure for Cancer
Hello Steemians,
I'm writing this post as an entry for @karensuestudios 700 SP delegation contest to answer the question: "What do you want to do with the delegation?".
I would use this delegation to promote BOINC and associated projects.
What is BOINC?
BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) is a software platform developed by University of California in Berkeley released in 2002 which allows everyone to participate in various scientific projects.
You can help to find a cure for cancer or other various diseases, you can help to find new pulsars, you can help to create a model of MilkyWay galaxy and so on. It is up to you which project you choose.
It doesn't matter if you have no knowledge is chemistry, genetics or anything else because it is your computer who will be doing all that hard work. Scientists need alot of computation power for various simulations.
How does BOINC work?
After you download and install BOINC you will be asked to select any project(s) that you want to contribute to. You computer will then download application specific for project you decided to pick and first work units. After work units are downloaded your computer will start calculations.
You can add or remove project any time you want. You can even run many different project if you have computer with multiple CPU cores or more GPUs.
Here is an example of my computer running Rosetta@home project - designing new protein structure.
You can also read more about Rosetta@home success here.
Why I support BOINC?
I like the fact that even though I have no scientific knowledge I can still participate in a search for cure for worst diseases or in a search for unknown pulsars in universe.
My favorite projects are Rosetta@home (designing new protein structures), World Community Grid (crunching Mapping cancer markers work units now) or Einstein@home (search for gravitational waves and unknown pulsars).
Many people around the world are suffering from diseases. My dad died from diabetes when I was 13 and nobody could do anything to save him. With BOINC we all together can help scientistd to get another step closer to finding cures.
Is there any reward for BOINC computing?
Good feeling and BOINC credits (no value - just a measurement tool for work units finished) were the only rewards for years however recently I discovered GridCoin.
GridCoin if another cryptocurrency but its different. You don't waste energy for nothing. You get rewarded for running BOINC like you would do anyway.
GridCoin mining is simple. For solo mining you just run BOINC as usual with GridCoin wallet open at the same time (simplified).
For pool mining you just sign up to a GridCoin mining pool and set up BOINC client to run work units under pool name (also simplified).
Basically you just run BOINC as usual and get rewarded with GridCoins on the side. Even though GridCoin value is low it definitelly helps offset electricity bills.
I'm ready to answer any questions in comments.
Thank you for reading :)
Being A SteemStem Member
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Thank you. I just read your blog post. The more people know about GridCoin (and BOINC) the better :)
Indeed! My SP is pretty low but I'm pretty much putting delegating all I can on my main to it so eventually It'll get to a point where it's useful. :p
I am also a GridCoin supporter... for a long time! Have like, some years of computing history... Awesome project. Wish something like Steem could be coupled with Gridcoin. In terms of, an interface to show the world, results about the research being developed there.
Keep going :) Its weird that I haven't discovered GridCoin earlier.. Probably I thought that it was just another electricity wasting coin but then someone explained GridCoin in discussion under czech news article about BTC :)
Actually, there is a lot of science (real science) that I know personally people of... that use BOINC as a platform to provide resources to do research... because they do not have the means to justify that on the usual government funding platforms. Soo... yes, GridCoin, brings it to another level... but still very "unknown" to the research community...
Something to change... I hope.
This is really fascinating. I think I read somewhere recently that a BOINC app for Android has been developed too. So now you can support scientific research even with your smart phone or tablet.
Yes this is true - BOINC can be installed also on android devices from play store. However not all projects can be run on android.
Hi @goatman, how reliable is it to run BOINC using smartphone?
Hi, actually I run BOINC only on my PC. I haven't tried it on Android because my smartphone is too old :)
You can check http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Android_FAQ
Noted. I will read on it. I plan to use my laptop as my main. I seldom use it so might as well use it for good reasons. Thanks for your reply.
Do you have any favorite projects already? :)
Right now I'm looking at OpenZika, Help Stop TB, and or DNA@Home. We have cases of Zika here in Singapore while my mother had TB before, so I can relate to those two. For the DNA@Home, I'm interested to learn more about it😊 Tonight I will start to install BOINC and will be following your articles about it.
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Thank You !
wow! I had never heard of BOINC until your post! Thank you for sharing!
It is also very easy to install and use :)
Hey @goatman years ago I used to use my computer for the folding@home project! I am new to steemit and I just found out about Gridcoin. Do you recommend solo or mining pool for someone with just a macbook pro? Is there only one mining pool available? I have only seen grcpool.com.
Cheers and thank you for this post!
Hi, I've been using grcpool.com and I recommend it.
Solo mining is advised for miners with at least 10k GRC in their wallets (more GRC in wallet makes chance to mine a block a lot bigger).
Hello, I'd like to know how much time do you recomend to run BOINC in a daily basis. For pool mining, ## hours per day? I hope to hear feedback from you. Thanks a lot !
It is up to you. The more - the better (think about electricity bills).
I haven't turned my computer off for 2 weeks now and I pause BOINC only when I do CPU heavy things on PC :)
Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it😊
Thanks! So when I have joined the grcpool.com and added it to the BOINC manger (took awhile to figure it out as it kept on saying fail to add project. Solved it by using the Advanced view). Anyway, from the grcpool.com website I just attach projects eg. Rosseta@home and sync BOINC? Do I need to go to the Rossetta@home and also join the group or have I joined indirectly through the grcpool? Also, do you recommend joining multiple projects or just pick one? I assume the more projects you have the less CPU power to each project or is there like "merged" projects like how some coins can be mined together? Sorry for all these newbie questions.
Cheers!
ian
Attach project from grcpool and sync BOINC manager (you may need to sync twice). BOINC should download work units after that.
I prefer running one project at a time. Just pick your favorite :)
Thanks!