New Toys
In the latest Gridcoin release version 4.0.2 a new feature call "side-staking" was enabled.
Borowed from one of my other favourite coins Pinkcoin, side-staking is a way to share the rewards you earn from staking your coins amongst several addresses.
In Gridcoin, each time you stake a block, you get 10GRC, any fees from transactions that occurred in that block and any accumulated BOINC Research rewards. Until now, that automatically just gets sent back to the address that staked the block.
Side-staking lets you split that reward into upto (in the current version) six lots, which can be sent to other addresses, not just the staking address. You might not immediately see the point, but this has some interesting features. The addresses that you share your stakes with, do not necessarily need to be your own.
For example if you had a freind who was trying to build some initial stake, you could share them a bit of your GRC. The point is, you share as you earn, and in this sense it feels less 'painful', you never see the GRC in the first place, so you never miss it.
Personally I am using side-staking already to help fund https://boincstats.com/en/bam/
A percentage of every stake I make is going to BOINCStats; Willy has been a tireless and central figure in the BOINC universe for a long time, and so many people enjoy his efforts, but its not a cheap thing for him to do. He has a funding page (https://boincstats.com/en/page/donate) and is always in need of support.
I checked in with Willy yesterday and he confirmed he will keep his current GRC address https://boincstats.com/en/forum/4/9117,1
I also think its great for our Gridcoin Devs to see new features they worked hard to build, in actual usage!
Will you Side-Stake?
I dont have a list of BOINC projects that accept GRC donations but I believe there are some, so maybe you will want to give it a try yourself, if so, let everyone know (and probably good to check in with the project too).
If you arent sure how to use side staking, check the recent release notes, but it is pretty simple, add to your gridcoinresearch.conf file:
enablesidestaking=1
sidestake=Gridcoin_Recipient_Address,Percentage_Share