Gridcoin - Autonomous Systems – Infographics
Gridcoin and BOINC projects are autonomous systems (AS) that can operate independently. In the Gridcoin system an interesting reward mechanism for work done in BOINC projects has been implemented. It distributes part of the inflation (newly minted coins) to BOINC participants (who opted in, i.e. also have Gridcoin IDs). Implemented solution might be the first functional smart contract ( worth to check and confirm).
Project servers publish score tables. Nodes import score tables and calculate GRC rewards. Participant (cruncher) has to be identifiable by Gridcoin software in both systems. BOINC platform has an inbuilt ID system – CPID which is used by Gridcoin nodes to associate internal IDs (address, beacon) with BOINC IDs.
Inflation pool (newly minted coins) is distributed via interest and research rewards according to inbuilt smart contracts. Existing coins can be transferred between accounts, but there is no smart contract protocol or API that would allow to use them in other autonomous systems. There only exists a partial solution of rain feature that works with BOINC platform, and has several limitations.
A basic requirement for AS interoperability would be Gridcoin Identification Protocol (GIP) and Open Score Table (OST) format. For simple projects, like charity raffle, a simple plugin for popular web platforms (like Wordpress) would suffice. Second type of superblocks (SB-B) would have to be implemented. The system would work as follows:
- convenor sets up AS server and registers website address in Gridcoin system
- project budget is supplied by convenor or participants
- participants register both in Gridcoin and external AS
- AS server updates score table
- score table is imported by nodes, nodes calculate GRC rewards and superblock type B is created
In general, this would work almost exactly the same as current BOINC integration does.
Potential use cases:
- charity raffles
- betting
- payment system for Gridcoin developers
This is really interesting, and is really a subset of a larger idea, which is to implement a generalized (contract based) rewards mechanism that can be extended to arbitrary projects/entities besides those in BOINC...
I foresee a day where entities that want to draw computing power for their (distributed) computing needs essentially create, as you call it, an AS in the gridcoin network, and then have a set of rules that control payout of rewards. The rewards do not have to come from money supply inflation. In fact, other than the original BOINC AS, the rewards would come from GRC the entity has bought itself and wants to redistribute in exchange for the contribution of computing resources (this is the generalized version of rain).
Glad to see that you clearly see what I've tried to picture :) I wish there would be more discussion on the topic, but especially devs are currently too busy with deploying fixes and new wallet version.
I really want to implement my Grey List idea ( F U G_UK ) in this picture as it could/would be part of the system eventually but I am no artist.
Great idea, could this be used for surveys etc? Could we create a gridcoin boinc project for surveying the gridcoin community? Or what about a bounty system and/or project management system for the gridcoin community?
A generalized payment system for various professionals/organizations to be paid in gridcoin could be very interesting.
Glad you like it! I see a great potential for a variety of projects, bounty system is a good example. But it seems like a big project to extend current blockchain usability. BOINC rewards system seems to be a smart contract system deeply intertwined with 'normal' blockchain and we would need an open system of smart contracts + API so 3rd parties could connect to Gridcoin blockchain.
I hope after the forking problems will be solved some developers will find a bit of time and comment.