I think the only thing that is currently holding GRC back is also one of it's amazing strengths, and that is being open source. Since no one owns it, no one is taking the incentive to do some serious marketing and promotion.
It is a job we will all have to take up on ourselves as a community. I am also quite certain that some of the people that have accumulated a huge amount will realize that they are hitting diminishing returns by just accumulating and do some payed advertising themselves to increase the value. Getting an article or 2 published in some serious magazines wouldn't hurt either.
Nobody, and i say nobody, should trust a closed source crypto.
Well there is open source, and then there is Really open source. GRC is in the second category, which is great, but also means that it will take more time to gain traction. Once it does, and people start really investing themselves in it, and I am not talking about just money any more, it will skyrocket.
Look at Steem, it can self promote itself and gives incentive to be active and, by doing so, makes you promote the platform. Is Steem really more important or worth more then serious scientific research? IMHO it's not, but it's concept has made it easy to promote, as marketing, content and rewards are in one connected cycle. GRC hasn't even managed to attract at least half the BOINC contributors, let alone the rest of the market. But the founding principle is great and it will succeed, and when it does, it will boom exponentially.
As a fellow BOINC contributor myself, I just make sure to promote the platform and give out knowledge as much as I can, every little bit counts.
I think what you mean is opensource and community driven, which is still accurate.
But yes. Just buying GRC is a good way to support science. Many of the sellers may reinvest it in better number crunching hardware.