What Is BOINC and How Even You Can Help to Find a Cure for Cancer

Hello Steemians,   

I'm writing this post as an entry for @karensuestudios 700 SP delegation contest to answer the question: "What do you want to do with the delegation?".   

I would use this delegation to promote BOINC and associated projects.

What is BOINC?   

BOINC (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) is a software platform developed by University of California in Berkeley released in 2002 which allows everyone to participate in various scientific projects. 

You can help to find a cure for cancer or other various diseases, you can help to find new pulsars, you can help to create a model of MilkyWay galaxy and so on. It is up to you which project you choose.

It doesn't matter if you have no knowledge is chemistry, genetics or anything else because it is your computer who will be doing all that hard work. Scientists need alot of computation power for various simulations.     

How does BOINC work?   

After you download and install BOINC you will be asked to select any project(s) that you want to contribute to. You computer will then download application specific for project you decided to pick and first work units. After work units are downloaded your computer will start calculations.

You can add or remove project any time you want. You can even run many different project if you have computer with multiple CPU cores or more GPUs.

Here is an example of my computer running Rosetta@home project - designing new protein structure.

You can also read more about Rosetta@home success here.

Why I support BOINC?   

I like the fact that even though I have no scientific knowledge I can still participate in a search for cure for worst diseases or in a search for unknown pulsars in universe. 

My favorite projects are Rosetta@home (designing new protein structures), World Community Grid (crunching Mapping cancer markers work units now) or Einstein@home (search for gravitational waves and unknown pulsars).

Many people around the world are suffering from diseases. My dad died from diabetes when I was 13 and nobody could do anything to save him. With BOINC we all together can help scientistd to get another step closer to finding cures.   

Is there any reward for BOINC computing?  

Good feeling and BOINC credits (no value - just a measurement tool for work units finished) were the only rewards for years however recently I discovered GridCoin.    

GridCoin if another cryptocurrency but its different. You don't waste energy for nothing. You get rewarded for running BOINC like you would do anyway.   

GridCoin mining is simple. For solo mining you just run BOINC as usual with GridCoin wallet open at the same time (simplified). 

For pool mining you just sign up to a GridCoin mining pool and set up BOINC client to run work units under pool name (also simplified).   

Basically you just run BOINC as usual and get rewarded with GridCoins on the side. Even though GridCoin value is low it definitelly helps offset electricity bills.   

I'm ready to answer any questions in comments.   

Thank you for reading :)