My Opinion About Stake Kernel v8
I created this post after reading this article written by @dutch.
While I agree with dutch that my main goal for Gridcoin is to support science and use computing power for useful calculations instead of using gigawat hours for useless hashing, I have a different seight on the upcoming changes in stake kernel v8.
How Gridcoin works
Gridcoin rewards users for running the BOINC software. The BOINC software helps researchers around the world to create a distributed computing project. Volunteers from all over the world can download the BOINC software, choose a project and run scientific computations on their computer while their for are for example writting an email.
When this calculations are complete your computer uploads it to a server. After the results are confirmed you get a certain amount of credits. Those credits are "worthless" but they show how much computing power you contributed.
Gridcoin pays users depending on how many credits they earned.
Currently you get your reward when you stake a block on the Gridcoin blockchain.
This is done with the Proof of Stake (POS) method. The client tries to create a new block with the coins you already have. The more coins you have the higher is the chance you stake a block. This staking method will give you 1.5 % yearly interest and you will get paid for the work on the boinc network you have done.
So in order to get paid for your work you have to stake a block. And for this you need some coins.
What will change with stake kernel v8
Currently not only the balance but also the magnitude (how much work a users has done) are taken into account to calculate the probability to stake a block. So a user with low balance that has done much work for the BOINC network will get paid earlier than if he hadn't done any work. This is a cool system that rewards the ones that give this coin its value: the crunchers.
In stake kernel v8 the staking probability depends only on the balance.
Why this change?
It was shown that there are several security issues when the magnitude is taken into account for staking probability. In fact it is possible for users to stake more than they acutally would. This does not give them more Gridcoins than what they are owed for their research but other users have to wait longer for their reward. When only the balance is used for the stake calculations this vulnerabilites are fixed.
What many users are concerned about
Many users with relatively high magnitude and low balance are worried that they won't get their reward regularly. All work a user has done during 6 month is stored and he will be backpaid for that. But a users has to stake within 6 month for that. If he stakes after 6 month and two days he will loose two days of work.
My opinion
This changes are very important to fix several security issues. The security of the blockchain is the most important thing. Imagine a world where everyone could print money. The money would loose its value.
If users haven't got enough Gridcoins to stake within 6 month they can join a pool and get payouts regularly.
The netweight will probably be lower because magnitude is not take into account anymore. So probably it won't be that hard to stak a block.
In addition the community and the developers are discussing new ways of rewarding crunchers. So this changes aren't permanent at all and mainly to secure Gridcoin.
Happy crunching :)
Honestly I think that now this post makes it complete we have said everything that there is to say about v8. Now we just need all to rrelax a little and to wait and see. Iam sure that the world does not end directly at the block V8 goes live. Iam also not a huge fan of this system but it patches up identified holes so it is a good thing. We need to stick heads together and elaborate solutions like this SB payout thing this is what makes gridcoin too strong to fail the community the motivation and the Devs behind !
Keep calm and carry on crunching !
No, will not sit and wait...
BOINC does not need Gridcoin! Thousands of people run BOINC without GRC!
But Gridcoin needs BOINC and crunchers - otherwise it's just a meaningless PoS coin and nothing more!
GRC value will plummet without crunchers...
Hope, that devs will understand that!
And hope, that this will happen soon!
Sit and wait was exactly NOT what I said.
I said sit down and keep crunching which is exactly what gridcoin needs. Additionally we need to stick our heads together to find clever solutions:) there ist just not much to write or say to V8 anymore prior to its launch on the chain
I disagree that the exploit was a huge issue - and it could have potentially be solved in many other ways. All rewards paid using the exploit were PoR that was earned - it didn't create extra GRC that should not have otherwise existed. With this fix, we are moving in the opposite direction: it is potentially depriving people of coins they otherwise would have earned because they simply won't be able to stake and earn those coins. As a coin, we are here to support BOINC. This doesn't support BOINC and it makes the barrier to entry higher.
Having witness this debate play out on IRC over the last couple of days and having read the comments here, I started to think about to when I started GRC. It was already a pain in the ass to get the wallet and blockchain loaded. Then I had to send a beacon and wait like 1-2 weeks to get my first payout - and that was after buying a couple thousand coins.
Here's what I see as issues based upon what I'm reading:
Today is the first alternative I've heard presented that actually seemed to make sense: could we pay out research at each superblock? Could we perhaps have a discussion of what would be the pros and cons of doing this? Perhaps there is a formula we could all agree upon that somehow uses a validated mag to help distance the frequency of payouts so we don't cause dilution.
The goal was to fix the issues fast. And this was an easy and fast solution. As I've written the reward scheme will most likely change in the future. And I stated clearly that the user won't get more GRC than what he's owed. But personally I agree that users should be able to claim POR reward with a low balance. I really like the superblock reward idea.
Anyway thanks for reading and your thoughts.
A fix that wasn't necessary needed at the speed of which it was implemented because the exploit was not an serious threat.
Sure, as you said, it may change in the future...just like we've been saying for 1 1/2 years since I've been hear that the team requirement would go away at some point. The more and more I hear about this fix, the less and less I like it - the harm far outweighs the benefits.
We all want newbies paid quickly and reliably, and for that there is a pool.
I would rather see everyone go immediately solo because it's better for security.
I hope the devs can bring these two ideals closer together.
Bullhocky, @scalextrix. A big component of BOINC is individual recognition and contribution and loyalty to your teams. Why would you go into the pool - a centralized resource - when you are trying to support a decentralized resource, be loyal to your team and help it move up the ranks, and still get credit under your own user name.
Therein lies the existing problem with GRC already: BOINCers don't like it because it disrupts the existing team framework, so we already have an adamant wing of the BOINC base against us. Why create an even higher barrier to entry now?
So, you have repeated everything I said, and then replaced my calculated numbers with things like:
to put a positive spin on it...? That statement is strictly wrong as staking will get easier for a small subset of the stakeholder population, which is the investors. Therefore, as I described, if you take any random GRC stakeholder it will probably become harder for them to stake...
this post was included in the
about 6 days left until stakev8 activation
I personally don't like, that I'm FORCED to buy 300 - 400 $ worth of GRC to get paid regularly by doing BOINC work...
Instead I dumped most of my 11k at Bittrex pump and NOT gonna buy them back!
I hope, that some day devs gonna make that coin work for CRUNCHERS not only for WHALES