IMPORTANT NOTICE
You will need approx 1-2 GRC to get started with solo crunching, which you can obtain from a faucet, a friendly user on our discord server, or an exchange. To collect accrued rewards, you must stake a block or use MRC (manual reward claim) to have somebody stake for you. MRC does have some fees, and the less often you make MRC requests the lower the fees will be. Once you have sufficient GRC (approx 5,000 to stake once a month on average), you will no longer need to make MRC claims as your wallet will be able to regularly stake blocks on its own.
Don't Want BOINC/Folding@Home rewards?
Switch to the Non-Cruncher guide. You do not need to install or run BOINC in order to use GRC as a cryptocurrency.
BOINC Introduction
To earn Gridcoin, you need to crunch whitelisted BOINC projects or Folding@home. BOINC is a tool which connects you to various research projects incentivized by Gridcoin. You must install the BOINC client and select one or more BOINC projects. Note that Folding@home (a non-BOINC project) has some different steps required to earn GRC rewards, please see this guide before proceeding.
Install BOINC
Go to the BOINC website, download and install BOINC for any computer you want to run BOINC on. Do not download "Science United" as it is incompatible with Gridcoin. If you'll be crunching with multiple devices, please see our FAQ.
Windows users: Download the BOINC + Virtualbox option to ensure you can crunch the widest variety of projects possible.
Linux users: BOINC install packages are currently broken please use this workaround.
Choose Projects on the Whitelist
Sources of whitelist data
- Gridcoin Wallet
- Gridcoin.us Whitelist page
- Gridcoinstats.eu
Project Selection Tips
- See our optimization tips for picking projects that will earn you the most GRC.
- Have a backup project in case your primary project runs out of work or goes down.
Adding projects to BOINC
- Note: If you are an existing BOINC user and use an account manager such as BAM, you can add projects via your account manager so long as accounts at the projects all use the same e-mail address (BAM's default).
- After starting BOINC, select the "add a project" button.
- After clicking "Next" choose a project.
- For some projects (such as World Community Grid) you have to register directly on the homepage of the project. Remember to use the same email address for all BOINC projects.
- Confirm the registration. After tapping the "Finish" button, a browser should open. If not, go to the project homepage (can be found via Google). Find the “Your Account” button and press it.
- Within the web page, enter your username (country/post-code can be blank) then press OK.
- (optional) Search for and join team "Gridcoin" or a team of your choice.
- Repeat these steps for all projects you want to participate in.