Gridcoin: Collatz Conjecture up-and-running again

Collatz Conjecture is a project that uses Internet-connected computers to perform research in mathematics. It is a privately managed BOINC project, based in Wood Dale – Illinois, attempting to disprove the Collatz Conjecture. It is also one of the 23 whitelisted Gridcoin projects.

The Collatz conjecture is the simplest open problem in mathematics. You can explain it to any non-mathematical person and even to small children who have just learned to divide by 2. On the other hand, it is a very complex problem to solve and mathematicians suspect that a solution of the Collatz conjecture will open new horizons and develop new and important techniques in number theory.

Lately the Collatz Conjecture project has had a fair share of issues, where crunchers were able to game the points generation for their own benefits. Fortunately the team has now fixed the issues and while going through the application and server updates, they have also upgraded their website and even restarted the work-unit numbering.

Initially there was only a Windows application available but the team has just released the Linux version as well. Checking the forum, there are still some issues but I expect they will be resolved soon.

So if you are a BOINC user with some spare CPU/GPU cycles available, this could be again an interesting project to help science moving forward.

Gridcoin is an open source cryptocurrency (Ticker: GRC) which securely rewards volunteer computing performed upon the BOINC platform in a decentralized manner on top of proof of stake.

BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) is a distributed Internet platform and was launched beginning of 2002 and it rewards participants with credits for performed work. BOINC is an application available for multiple Operating Systems and uses the unused CPU and GPU cycles on computers to perform scientific work.

Image source: Header, Gridcoin logo, BOINC logo