Detailed Guides

How would you like to participate?

Solo crunching is for people with a balance of GRC that gives a higher probability of staking a block within 8 weeks. This is currently about 5,000 GRC.

Pool crunching is for people with few or no GRC. You will earn GRC with a pool, but you will not earn individual BOINC stats.

Staking-only is for people who do not wish to work on distributed computing projects, but want to earn GRC by securing the ledger.

BOINC Introduction

BOINC logo

BOINC—The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, an open-source middleware system, supports volunteer and grid computing. Originally developed to support the SETI@home project, it became generalized as a platform for other distributed applications in areas as diverse as mathematics, linguistics, medicine, molecular biology, climatology, environmental science, and astrophysics, among others. BOINC aims to enable researchers to tap into the enormous processing resources of multiple personal computers around the world.

Don't want BOINC rewards? Switch to the Staking-only Guide. You do not need to install or run BOINC in order to use GRC as a cryptocurrency.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1. Install BOINC

You must install the BOINC client and select one or more BOINC projects. Go to the BOINC website, download and install BOINC for any computer that you want to run BOINC on. The BOINC+VirtualBox package is only needed if you choose projects that use VirtualBox

Step 2. Choose Projects

To earn Gridcoin, you need to crunch whitelisted BOINC projects.

Project Selection Tips

  • Choose projects with the least competition. Use GridcoinStats to help identify such projects.
  • Select projects most compatible with your computer hardware. Don't crunch GPU work with a CPU.
  • Verify that your projects have enough work available. You don't want downtime while waiting for projects to generate new work.
  • Have a backup project in case your primary project runs out of work or goes down.

Step 3. Setup Projects

No Account Manager Setup

  1. After starting BOINC, select the "add a project" button.
  2. After clicking "Next", choose a project.
  3. For some projects (such as World Community Grid), you have to register directly on the homepage of the project. Remember to use the same email address for each BOINC project.
  4. Confirm the registration. After tapping the "Finish" button, a browser should open. If not, go to the project home page (which can be found via a search engine). Find the "Your Account" button and press it.
  5. Within the web page, enter your username (country/post code can be blank) and then press "OK".
  6. Repeat these steps for all projects that you want to participate in.

Step 4. Install the Gridcoin Wallet

To earn Gridcoin in solo staking mode, you need to run the Gridcoin client continuously. Install a client compatible with your operating system.

Optional Post-install Gridcoin Configuration

  • If you installed the BOINC client anywhere other than the default installation location, you'll need to specify where you installed BOINC in the gridcoinresearch.conf file.
  • You need to use the same email address for all BOINC projects. Add this email to your gridcoinresearch.conf file (unless the Gridcoin wizard has already done this for you).

Step 5. Sync with the Blockchain

Before your wallet can do anything, it needs to be synced (the green check mark under connections means you are synced).

Step 6. Get Some Gridcoin

In Gridcoin's Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system, BOINC rewards are given when users stake along with an additional 10 GRC.

To stake and earn your BOINC rewards, a balance of GRC is required.

  1. For monthly staking, a balance of approximately 5000 GRC is recommended.
  2. The rate you are rewarded for your BOINC work is the rate you mint PoS blocks because BOINC rewards are layered on top of these blocks.
  3. Your balance does not affect the amount of the payout, only how frequent. You need to wait around 16 hours for received coins to become eligible to earn staking rewards.

If you don't want to buy any Gridcoin, you can get some through the faucets or through pool mining. On most exchanges, you need to buy Bitcoin first in order to buy Gridcoin.

Step 7. Earn Research Rewards

Check Your Projects

  1. Make sure any projects you crunch are on the whitelist. If a project isn't approved, you will not be rewarded for it.
  2. Check that the CPIDs (cross-project identifiers) are the same across your projects. You can check on each project or check using BOINCstats. If you found differing CPIDs, use this guide.
  3. If you installed the BOINC client anywhere other than the default installation location, you'll need to specify where you installed BOINC in the gridcoinresearch.conf file.

    Windows: (Note the double backslashes are necessary. Change location according to your non-default install location) 
    boincdatadir=D:\\ProgramData\\BOINC\\
boincappdir=C:\\Program Files\\BOINC\\

    Linux: 
    boincdatadir=/var/lib/boinc-client/

Configure the Wallet

  1. In the wallet, go to the "overview" page and check the badge in the top-left. Make sure it doesn't say "Staking Only".
    • If it does, ensure that you followed each of the steps in "Check Your Projects" above. If you set up BOINC in a non-default path, add the path to the configuration file (see Step 4).
  2. Send a beacon.

Running the Wallet to Stake

  1. Unlock the wallet for staking only if locked. It is recommended to have it encrypted for security.
  2. Run the wallet close to 24/7. When your wallet is off, you miss chances to stake blocks and earn rewards.
  3. Every six months, you will need to send a beacon again. Repeat the process shown in "Configure the Wallet".
  4. Keep the wallet up-to-date as updates are released.

BOINC Introduction

BOINC logo

BOINC—The Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, an open-source middleware system, supports volunteer and grid computing. Originally developed to support the SETI@home project, it became generalized as a platform for other distributed applications in areas as diverse as mathematics, linguistics, medicine, molecular biology, climatology, environmental science, and astrophysics, among others. BOINC aims to enable researchers to tap into the enormous processing resources of multiple personal computers around the world.

Don't want BOINC rewards? Switch to the Staking-only Guide. You do not need to install or run BOINC in order to use GRC as a cryptocurrency.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1. Install BOINC

You must install the BOINC client and select one or more BOINC projects. Go to the BOINC website, download and install BOINC for any computer that you want to run BOINC on. The BOINC+VirtualBox package is only needed if you choose projects that use VirtualBox.

Step 2. Sign up to a Gridcoin pool

There are currently two pools:

GRCPOOL has created several video tutorials for new users:

Step 2. Choose Projects

To earn Gridcoin, you need to crunch whitelisted BOINC projects.

Project Selection Tips

  • Choose projects with the least competition. Use GridcoinStats to help identify such projects.
  • Select projects most compatible with your computer hardware. Don't crunch GPU work with a CPU.
  • Verify that your projects have enough work available. You don't want downtime while waiting for projects to generate new work.
  • Have a backup project in case your primary project runs out of work or goes down.

Step 4. Install the Gridcoin Wallet

Install a client compatible with your operating system.

Step 5. Sync with the Blockchain

Before your wallet can do anything, it needs to be synced (the green check mark under connections means you are synced).

Step 7. Earn Research Rewards

Follow the instructions provided by the selected gridcoin pool.

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1. Install the Gridcoin Wallet

To earn Gridcoin in solo staking mode, you need to run the Gridcoin client continuously. Install a client compatible with your operating system.

Step 2. Sync with the Blockchain

Before your wallet can do anything, it needs to be synced (the lit stacked icon on the bottom-right means you are synced).

Step 3. Get Some Gridcoin

In Gridcoin's Proof-of-Stake (PoS) system, BOINC rewards are given when users stake along with an additional 10 GRC.

To stake, a balance of GRC is required.

  1. For monthly staking, a balance of approximately 5000 GRC is recommended.
  2. Your balance does not affect the amount of the payout, only how frequent. You need to wait around 16 hours for received coins to become eligible to earn staking rewards.

If you don't want to buy any Gridcoin, you can get some through the faucets or through pool mining. On most exchanges, you need to buy Bitcoin first in order to buy Gridcoin.

Step 4. Earn Gridcoin via POS

  1. Once running an up-to-date fully synced client with a positive balance, all that is required is for you to unlock your wallet for 'staking only'.
  2. Once your wallet is unlocked, it will take up to 16 hours for your coins to fully start staking.
  3. Best practice is to continuously stake 24/7 if possible, since you have an opportunity to stake each block (even if your probability is low) and coin age is not considered within the staking probability calculation.