Don't you just hate it when you're crunching away on BOINC, maxing out your hardware and then the next SuperBlock hits and your magnitude DECREASES?
I was so confused a couple weeks ago when I built my second rig (which I named "The Computable Hulk" and you should totally go read more about it HERE) and the first ~4 superblocks I was alternating between gaining magnitude one day and then losing magnitude the next day. I even hit up the GitHub for GridCoin and was promptly assured that if my magnitude decreased, it just means I'm losing ground versus all the new miners.
"BUT I JUST ADDED A RIG WITH THREE GTX 1080's!! YOU'RE TELLING ME I'M LOSING GROUND WITH THIS!?"
Don't get me wrong, my magnitude has soared overall with this second rig, but the competition is really heating up. Check out this BoincStats RAC graph of the GridCoin team over the last 60 days (the blue line is the official BOINC Rac):
Keep in mind that RAC alone doesn't give you a full picture of how much more computing power a team has, because different projects reward Cobblestones (BOINC credits) at different rates. For example, my contributions to PrimeGrid earn me more than 10x per day what my contributions to SETI@Home rewarded me.
I took a look at the BOINCStats team member movement page and GridCoin has acquired a total of 706 new miners since 3/29/2017. Of those 706 new miners, 234 of them have earned more than one million Cobblestones, which is a strong indicator that many of these miners have been sticking around.
Here's a chart showing the number of new users to the GridCoin team by day since 3/29/17. Notice the trend:
Frustrated by lower magnitude? Dont' be.
The good news is what while GridCoin total RAC has increased by 34% since 5/12/2017, the price of GridCoin has risen far more. The price of GridCoin on 5/12 was $0.039 USD while the price today (6/25/17) is $0.074 USD, a 90% increase.
That means even if we use the simplistic assumption that your magnitude using the same equipment is likely about 34% lower now than it was two months ago, the coins you're earning on your new lower magnitude are likely to be earning you more money (in FIAT exchange) than what you were earning with your higher magnitude before.
Will new miners always equal lower magnitude and a higher exchange rate?
Unfortunately that would be impossible to predict because it's always a "chicken or the egg" scenario. The current situation was driven by a renewed interest in CryptoCurrency led by BitCoin and Ethereum over this same ~two month period. This led to additional investment in GRC, which then led to an influx of new miners. The balance of mining capability versus GRC revenue is currently very good, I think. My two large rigs are currently achieving a 900 magnitude with ~200 GRC minted per day, which is worth about $450/month USD. My electricity to produce that much GRC costs around $100/month. I consider that to be pretty reasonable.
Now, if GridCoin lifts the team requirement soon, leading to a new influx of miners, I think that's uncharted territory. It will certainly lead to an increase in the GRC exchange price, but it is hard to determine how that balance between price/difficulty will hit the existing miners with the potential influx of thousands of new miners.
The good news is that the GridCoin community is already proactively discussing PoR (Proof of Research) rewards. I am confident that if mining becomes unprofitable, the community will act to adjust the PoR rewards in a smart way that keeps both the investors' and the miners' interests in balance.
Have you noticed your magnitude dropping in recent weeks? Can you confirm that your daily mining reward is higher (in exchanged GRC for your local FIAT terms) today than it was before? Let's chat in the comments.
The recent growth has been pretty incredible, both in terms of the market price of GRC and in the strength of the Gridcoin BOINC team. And our team's growth isn't just made up of long-term BOINCers abandoning their teams, we're attracting a lot of brand new users.
This is a really exciting time in a lot of ways and I'm happy to welcome all newcomers, even if it results in less rewards for myself. It's good to see people supporting science! I hope Gridcoin helps to open the floodgates and push BOINC into the mainstream. The bigger the volunteer base, the more incentive there will be for BOINC innovation and new project development.
I've added a lot of hardware over the last few months, so my magnitude has been creeping up recently despite the extra competition. I'm sure you're correct in that the market price increase has more than covered the increased difficulty in earning coins. I have no idea how this will play out long-term, I'm hoping for the best though.
Since our computing power is being used for something useful, the competition is welcome! The influx of new miners will hopefully keep coming steadily so this coin can build some serious traction on the crypto scene, it's definitely going the right way. A falling payout rate for your hardware is something every crypto has, so it's not really unique, and I wouldn't consider it a problem, as long as the value of GRC keeps climbing, which it most definitely will if this trend sticks.
So I guess we should just give a hearty warm welcome to all the new BOINCers joining our awesome community! :)
My GRC magnitude is 4. ;) I make about 10 GRC per week. Huzzah!
10 GRC more than if you didnt try at all AND science wins :)
Gridcoin team and Aggie The Pew had about the same RAC on Primegrid only a week or two ago. Now, we are almost twice as big:
http://www.primegrid.com/top_teams.php
Wow. Does the majority of the PrimeGrid RAC come from the FP64 sub-projects?
No, the majority is from PPS Sieve which is FP32
Thanks for the write up. Perhaps you can help me, I am trying to setup mining on my mac. But the walker I install is not working .. BOINC works just fine.. any guidance is appreciated..