SCI in Jan: Microgrid, Folding@home, Gitcoin, more!

Another exciting month here at The SCI powered by your donations and energy! We've got tons of things to report on and even more in the coming months so strap in folks, it's gonna be a ride!

MicroGrid Working Group

If you are a researcher who needs compute time but don’t have access to a HPC (high-performance computing) cluster, what do you do? The answer for many years has been to shell out thousands of dollars to compute providers or try to make your own server using open-source software like BOINC, or unfortunately quite often, give up on the research entirely because you can’t fund the compute time. Making your own server is complicated at a technical level and only makes sense if you have large, ongoing compute needs, and many research projects only need compute sporadically. This is where Microgrid comes in: it’s a platform designed to connect researchers with smaller compute needs to the distributed computing network BOINC. We are working to build this platform, and had our first few meetings this past month. We are looking to hire a developer for this project, so if you are interested in helping out, get in touch!

Folding@home Adapter

After many months of discussion and planning, Gridcoin can now reward people who contribute their computational power to Folding@home. The SCI sponsored a bug bounty to get this feature implemented and was its largest backer. We’re very excited to have yet another tool in the toolbox to connect everyday computer users with scientific research.

Reddit AMA

As part of our work to support emerging technology which connects the public with the scientific process, The SCI hosted an AMA and $1500 giveaway on Reddit this month featuring DeSci coins Gridcoin, Curecoin, and Etica. This included a livestream discussion as well discussing how DeSci can support scientific research. The AMA got us at the top of the page on /r/cryptocurrency, the world’s largest forum for cryptocurrency discussion and got over 50,000 views, introducing many people familiar with the crypto space to exciting crypto projects supporting scientific research. And don’t worry, the giveaway was entirely funded by the communities represented in the AMA. No donor funds were used for this event!

BOINC Census

SCI launched and completed the BOINC census (results to be in early Feb!) with nearly 1,000 users having responded. This will help devs and project admins alike understand who uses BOINC and why and how to tailor their outreach and promotional efforts. We’re excited to see this become a yearly event and see how trends change over time. The BOINC census represents the first effort since 2006 to keep track of the growth and composition of the BOINC userbase over time.

Gitcoin Grant Round

We are once again participating in a grant round from Gitcoin, the organization that helps fund the Ethereum and OSS ecosystem. Last time, we raised nearly $30,000 and we hope to raise some more this time around. Donations are matched using quadratic funding, so $1 can easily become $5 or $5 can become $50. Gitcoin only accepts donations in Ethereum, so if you have access to an account at a crypto exhange (or would be willing to spend a few minutes signing up for one), we sure would appreciate a donation from you. Even a small donation goes a long way. Our board and staff are all volunteer, 100% of donations from the Gitcoin grant will go directly to our work. For more information, please see our step-by-step donation instructions at the link below: https://www.reddit.com/r/SCInitiative/comments/10gk1qf/please_support_the_sci_in_matching_grant_round/

Sneak peak

Wondering what’s coming up next? Here’s a sneak peak: DeSci at ETH Denver, BOINC workshop, new BOINC bug bounties, BOINC census results

That’s it for Jan 2023, we look forward to having more exciting updates for you next month. Thank you for your continued support, science to the moon 🚀!