Good Morning, Gridcoin!
I was sipping my morning coffee (I swear it gets stronger every day), trawling the news, when I stumbled upon the following article on Bloomberg: "A Prime Number Could be the Answer to Bitcoin's Power Problem"
I clicked through and discovered a rather pleasant surprise - the journalist makes explicit mention of Gridcoin, painting the project in a wonderfully positive light! The article notes how Gridcoin aims to solve "real world problems" - awarding Gridcoin to users for directing computing power towards important scientific projects through BOINC. What's more - the article links to the gridcoin.us wiki, meaning any potential readers are but a small click away from getting involved themselves - great!
I'll admit - it genuinely put a smile on my face to see Gridcoin receiving a little mainstream exposure. This project has the potential to help advance research in any number of important fields, all whilst using the spare computing cycles of devices that might otherwise be sitting idle, or worse - be thrown out when they're deemed obsolete or damaged.
However, it also got me thinking about what brought me to Gridcoin in the first place and - importantly - what it is that keeps me crunching!
My GRC Origin Story
#GRCoriginstoryAs I've mentioned before - I'm a designer / Marketing guy that turns his hand to pretty much any creative endeavour the boss requires - from scale model building to interior design to photography, set building - the list goes on. That's just my day job though, my... Cover story, if you will. But the full story? Take a seat by the campfire - let me enlighten you...
...Alright, okay, it's not as mysterious or secretive as I'm making out! For my part in the GRC story I rescue old / partially damaged laptops, computers and phones from being dumped - repurposing them as research machines. Sure, these devices don't have the processing power of a beastly gaming rig, or a ridiculously cool research lab (looking at you @dutch!), but they contribute what they can to help cure cancer, solve the world's health and sustainability problems, map the universe, find pulsars... and more. I feel it's what they'd want - our devices were designed to be used, after all!
But most importantly - doing this fills a science-shaped hole in my life that would otherwise go unfulfilled. As a kid I had grand dreams of becoming a scientist, inventor, researcher, explorer - you name it, I probably gave it a go... With varying levels of success and disaster.
An accurate depiction of my childhood - burns and all. I mean really, who buys an eight year old a chemistry set and a soldering iron? Looking at you Mum & Dad...
Alas, 'twas not meant to be - my shortcomings with concentration / attention (and a penchant for doing anything but what I was meant to be doing) led to me dropping out of my Physics degree and following a somewhat more random path through life into creative endeavours.
But - participating in Gridcoin, BOINCing, even throwing together new designs to help rebrand and promote the project - all of these things rekindle that childhood love of science and help me feel like I'm contributing. This is what brought about the idea of the "Secret Identities" campaign mentioned a while back - we're not all scientists in our day jobs, but through our secret Gridcoin / BOINC lives? We kinda are! That's what keeps bringing me back to Gridcoin - the opportunity for anyone, and I mean anyone, to be able to contribute in some small (or large) way to STEM endeavours.
To be fair, also a pretty accurate representation of my current direction in life
What about you?
So to you, dear reader, I ask - what's your secret identity? Tell us your #GRCoriginstory! I get the feeling that our community is full of fascinating individuals from all walks of life - so let's tell some of those stories! I'd love to make this a recurring thing - taking a little time in the morning to tell the story of one of our community members and help spread the word that...
(Wow, that was cheesy. Note to self, get better at coming up with catchphrases.)
A few questions to get you started:
- What's your 'cover story'? What do you do as your day job? (Be as vague or as detailed as you like!)
- What brought you to Gridcoin and BOINC in the first place?
- Have your BOINCing efforts resulted in any discoveries?
- Are you a super-researcher with fancy equipment (please show us your setup if you are so we can fawn over it!), or do you use humble desktops, computers and phones to BOINC?
- Any interesting or novel stories to tell?
- Any exciting projects on the go?
I look forward to reading your stories!
-- Josh
