Before reading this forum please know that i am NOT advocating you to switch FAH teams. The organization I work for is trying to bring more user adoption to FAH. What I am proposing allows you to stay on your current team. Please read this whole post before making a judgement
 
So how can we as a folding community bring more adoption to FAH?
 
Let's first compare the difference between a profitable organization and a non profit:
 

• Nonprofits: Not for profit companies do a good job of providing services to the community. Funding and volunteering is done mostly by those who have an active interest in the organizations mission. FAH for example is attractive to those in the medical community (since the project helps in fighting diseases) and techies (since computers are involved in the creation of the medical research). Outside of these two kinds of individuals, adoption is limited.
• For Profits: For profit businesses do a good job of getting particular services to the masses. Even though contributing resources and time to nonprofits make us all feel great, all of us still have to eat. Therefor a majority of our time and resources are spent working and supporting for profit businesses so the world economy can continue to go round and round. This is a very realistic reality that no one can argue - if you can't make money doing something, it will not expand as fast as there is no motive for personal gain and not as much growth for business operations.

 
But what happens when the two are combined?
 
Lets take a look at the only grid computing projects faster than FAH, and thats Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies. So why do people mine bitcoins?
 
Unlike other distributed computing platforms, since bitcoin is money it is actually profitable to contribute to unlike networks like BOINC and FAH. The more miners there are the less each one makes, so the price has grown with the mining power. Miners are awarded newly minted BTCs every 10 minutes for their contributions to the security and transaction verification of the network. This is done on a schedule and eventually there will be no more bitcoin created once 21 million are generated by miners.
 
Bitcoin was originally created just by using you computer to mine, but in March 2013 venture capitalists saw an opportunity to since the popularity has grown exponentially and there was profit incentives for the VC’s to create these specialized mining devices. Now anyone with $5 can purchase a miner that uses virtually no energy (USB device) that mines BTC faster than a R9 290X.
 
BTC is done in Hashes and FAH is done in FLOPS. There is no direct translation from one to another, but a common consensus is 1 hash equals 12,700 FLOPS when comparing the 2 side by side. The FAH grid computing network has nearly 50 PetaFLOPS and is known as world's most powerful computing network outside of the Bitcoin mining network. At the time before ASICs and FPGAs started hitting the market in December 2012, the Hash rate of the BTC network was at 26 TeraHASH’s in mostly GPU and CPU power. Based on a rough comparison 12.7 PetaFLOP = 1 TeraHASH the potential computational power that could be added to FAH is:
 
26 TeraHASH 12.7 PetaFLOPS = 330 PetaFLOPS.
 
Imagine if that power was harnessed for molecular protein folding. Most of this power was redirected to altcoin mining after the SHA ASICs came out, since there was no profit motive for folding.
 
If there is a profit motive to folding, Venture capitalists could see this as an opportunity to invest in the creation of economic sized Anton Supercomputer, which is an ASIC molecular protein simulating machine that can fold more efficiently than standard computing hardware. This very thing happened to Bitcoin mining when it became exponentially profitable: venture capitalists invested in the creation of ASIC miners to compute SHA256 at a more efficient rate than standard computing hardware. Currently the Bitcoin network is roughly 4.5 million PetaFLOPS, almost 100,000 times more powerful than FAH.
 
We propose introducing Crypto into FAH
 
FoldingCoin Inc (built on Counterparty) created an asset with a “Proof of Fold” concept to verify contributed computational power. Participants contribute their cycles to medical research on the Folding@home platform instead of a “Proof of Work” or “Proof of Stake” algorithm on a traditional Altcoin blockchain, and are compensated with crypto currencies.
 
Since Counterparty assets share the Bitcoin blockchain, this allows the legacy mining equipment from Altcoin mining to be redirected towards medical research, since the Bitcoin miners are already covering the security and hashing rate of the Bitcoin blockchain.
 
FoldingCoin has the ability to incorporate multiple coins into the open sourced distribution calculator based on individual missions of the respective coin. With more tokens being added to the FoldingCoin Inc. distribution family, more adaption is gained for Folding@home, FLDC, Counterparty, and the respective token, all at the same time. Tokens added in this way will be advertised as a collaboration effort on FoldingCoin Inc.’s part, but will still be developed and run separately from FoldingCoin Inc. Currently 6 different cryptocurrencies can be earned via FoldingCoin.
 
Once a day, FoldingCoin Inc.’s snapshot code downloads the FAH daily user summary text file and searches line by line to find those folders who have set up their folding software according to the FoldingCoin Inc. instructions (found on the front page of the FoldingCoin.net website):

• Setup a Counterwallet
• Setup FAH (if you already are running FAH, simply set your donor name according to instructions on Step 6)

Even if you do not want the crypto currency, by participating in this project, you will help bring more adoption to FAH from Miners and the general public. When FLDC becomes gains more liquidity in the crypto markets, more participants will join in. And if you do not want the TOKENS on our platform, simply set your donor BTC address to
 
username_ALL_1BYZjVL5QzD44xhepnvX3D1e2QCDCpP3cV
 
and the funds will go directly to supporting the FoldingCoin Inc project. Please consider participating in this program to help increase the FAH network to astronomical speeds. The following list will explain what purpose each TOKEN on our platform provides:

• FLDC - This token is distributed daily. We are building an eBay style Marketplace that will allow anyone to buy and sell items with Counterparty Tokens. FLDC will be exclusively used for transaction fees
• TOPFOLDER - This token is distributed once per month. You can exchange this token currently for 1 week of advertising on our website. In the future, we will expand the uses for this token.
• BITCRYSTALS - This token is distributed once per month. You use this token to buy packs of cards for the upcoming game “Spells of Genesis”.
• FDCARD - This token is distributed once per month. This is an exclusive card achieved only via folding for the game “Spells of Genesis”.
• SCOTCOIN - This token is distributed once per month. This token is trying to become the crypto currency of Scotland.
• OCTO - This token is distributed once per month. This token is building applications for online fantasy sports. Octoparty is new, so currently no uses.
• POWC - This token is distributed weekly. This token is trying to become the crypto currency of comic books. Currently being developed so currently no uses.

I will be following this forum thread very closely and look forward to answering all your questions. Thanks!
 
UPDATE:
To be clear, you do not have to switch teams. Please stay on your team . You simple need to change your donor name to: 
 
username(this can be any username)_ALL_CounterwalletAddress
 
So your FAH username wooduld look something like any name from this team:  FAH team 226728 (I cannot provide links yet)
 
Here is an example of a donor name:
 
kerbos5_ALL_13wYGb9WnjQRDmz8ryGMTGq8aExQsMpb35
 
Robert Ross 
 
 

Grey_Beard
Not sure I understand how any crypto-currency is based. What is the underlying investment or guarantee? For regular currency, a State or governmental entity has backed it or guaranteed its value. Even when gold was used, it still had another purpose or value as jewelry, so even with out backing it had value, but by trading a few sheep you could get some jewelry or gold. If this is a "per se" profit motive, then I am not sure of the value created, as the cures created have some value, do they not? How is that value less than a crypto-currency or made up (for all extensive purposes) currency? Not being harsh or flaming you here, but there must be an understanding of the support or backing. Yes these can be used for a certain purpose, but how are cards, crypto-Scottish coins or something else better? I have not supported any mining because of not understanding this, as it seems to me to be a large Ponzi scheme. Convince me I am wrong and maybe that will be the first step to gaining acceptance. If you can convince me, which in essence may convince others, of the value resulted by these "for profit" or VC investments, then I might understand and join. Even a stock certificate has value, as you have basically purchased physical ownership in an entity or business. What is gained or owned of value made with this type of thing? Ideas are good, but reality can be harsh. To me, it simple: transparency brings trust, trust brings credibility, credibility brings confidence. This is the basis of any currency, confidence that the holders have something of value or worth, whatever that may be.

So this is a long answer, to get a general idea of how crypto currency is better then money. I will answer this question as quick as I can using the source bitcoin.org, but the important thing with bringing crypto to FAH is this: people are putting more computational power into crypto then FAH, the reason is because its profitable. FAH is not profitable, therefor is limited, crypto is profitable therefor gains more adoption. The reason as to why is a very long conversation, but the fact remains regardless of you stance on BTC is people sink computational power into. Enjoy reading why crypto is better then money :D
 
Benefits for a business:

The lowest fees out there - Bitcoin's high cryptographic security allows it to process transactions in a very efficient and inexpensive way. You can make and receive payments using the Bitcoin network with almost no fees. In most cases, fees are not strictly required but they are recommended for faster confirmation of your transaction.

Protection against fraud - Any business that accepts credit cards or PayPal knows the problem of payments that are later reversed. Chargeback frauds result in limited market reach and increased prices, which in turn penalizes customers. Bitcoin payments are irreversible and secure, meaning that the cost of fraud is no longer pushed onto the shoulders of the merchants.

Fast international payments - Bitcoins can be transferred from Africa to Canada in 10 minutes. In fact, bitcoins never have any real physical location, so it is possible to transfer as many of them anywhere with no limits, delays, or excessive fees. There are no intermediate banks to make you wait three business days.

No PCI compliance required - Accepting credit cards online typically requires extensive security checks in order to comply with the PCI standard. Bitcoin still requires you to secure your wallet and your payment requests. However, you do not carry the costs and responsibilities that come with processing sensitive information from your customers like credit card numbers.

Get some free visibility - Bitcoin is an emerging market of new customers who are searching for ways to spend their bitcoins. Accepting them is a good way to get new customers and give your business some new visibility. Accepting a new payment method has often shown to be a clever practice for online businesses.

Multi-signature - Bitcoin also includes a multi-signature feature which allows bitcoins to be spent only if a subset of a group of people authorize the transaction. This can be used by a board of directors to prevent any member to make expenditures without enough consent from other members, as well as to track which members allowed each payment.

Accounting transparency - Many organizations are required to produce accounting documents about their activity. Using Bitcoin allows you to offer the highest level of transparency since you can provide information your members can use to verify your balances and transactions. Non-profit organizations can also allow the public to see how much they receive in donations.

Benefits for an individual:

Mobile payments made easy - Bitcoin on mobiles allows you to pay with a simple two step scan-and-pay. No need to sign up, swipe your card, type a PIN, or sign anything. All you need to receive Bitcoin payments is to display the QR code in your Bitcoin wallet app and let your friend scan your mobile, or touch the two phones together (using NFC radio technology).

Security and control over your money - Bitcoin transactions are secured by military grade cryptography. Nobody can charge you money or make a payment on your behalf. So long as you take the required steps to protect your wallet, Bitcoin can give you control over your money and a strong level of protection against many types of fraud.

Works everywhere, anytime - Just like with email, you don't need to ask your family to use the same software or the same service providers. Just let them stick to their own favorites. No problem there; they are all compatible as they use the same open technology. The Bitcoin network never sleeps, even on holidays!

Fast international payments - Bitcoins can be transferred from Africa to Canada in 10 minutes. There is no bank to slow down the process, level outrageous fees, or freeze the transfer. You can pay your neighbors the same way as you can pay a member of your family in another country.

Zero or low fees - Bitcoin allows you to send and receive payments at very low cost. Except for special cases like very small payments, there is no enforced fee. It is however recommended to pay a higher voluntary fee for faster confirmation of your transaction and to remunerate the people who operate the Bitcoin network.

Protect your identity - With Bitcoin, there is no credit card number that some malicious actor can collect in order to impersonate you. In fact, it is even possible to send a payment without revealing your identity, almost just like with physical money. You should however take note that some effort can be required to protect your privacy.
 
Please feel free to ask for in depth questions on each of these topics and I will respond, but these key notes are good to start on.

bill1024
John Doe is the best producer on our team, he produces 20 million points a day.
What's to stop me from saying I am John Doe, pay me.
How do you stop one person making five accounts with the top folders name from the top five teams?
CureCoin does it by having to join their team.
 
CureCoin started out at 1.32$ a coin and now is worth 0.05 was not a good investment at all.
 
What was FoldingCoin worth at launch and what is it worth today?

The value in crypto is very weird, its hard to predict and all cryptos go up and down. Currently CURE and FLDC have no immediate use therefor the value suffers. But we however do not have to implement a whole blockchain like CURE does because we are built inside of Bitcoin. So we share a Bitcoin wallet and the mining power from the BTC miners neither of which we have to develop because it already has developers. So we can focus on building uses for FLDC. The first thing we are building is an ebay style marketpalce where one can buy and sell goods for BTC and other cryptos. We will only accept FLDC for transaction costs to sell items on this site. 

146Kilos
FoldingCoin,
What is in it for you ?
We are already folding in here, we are not going to do more science if we change our I.D. and start again.
The more that  sign up for it the  more each each "coin" is going to have to be divided driving $/day down if I read it correctly ?
 
In $ at todays levels what is a 980 or  4 core 3.50Ghz I7 worth for 24 hours production ?

*Whats in it for you?

• Basically I love crypto currency and have long wanted to get involved in a crypto project that can help show addition power that crypto can bring to the world. Rather then crypto simply being labeled as drug money or gambling tokens, this shows that it can also be used for more productive measures. Just like when the internet came out and the mainstream said it would only be good for criminals and perverts, crypto is going through the same growing pains right now. I want to help be on the for front to eliminating that stereotype. Also upon success as a 501(c)3 charity just like FAH is, we will bring in donations from donors or people of interest in what we are trying to accomplish. We just received a $3 ,000 dollar donation for our work so far and if we continue to produce, we will bring in more donations. Also with creating an ebay type BTC and crypto store we will make money off of the transaction fees when users sell goods on our site. Summary: right now there is not a great financial motive to doing this for us. However with the team we have in place and the ideas that we are implementing, we feel this is something that can grow exponentially in popularity. Remember, all great businesses start in garages. 

*We are already folding in here, we are not going to do more science if we change our I.D. and start again.

• You as an individual will not contribute more science by changing your name. However, by you partaking in the project it will grow the popularity of a potential profit motive to FAH just as mining did for BTC. So if you help bring more adoption to this and make it profitable for the miners to join in, then the miners will contribute more science, therefor by changing your name you are contributing more to science. The miners need a reason to join, lets give it to them!

* The more that  sign up for it the  more each each "coin" is going to have to be divided driving $/day down if I read it correctly ?

• Thats correct. Just like with Bitcoin, the more participants there are, the less everyone gets. Its a deflationary currency idea (BTC) and most altcoins suffer in the first year. And many dont make it after that. And still, other then BTC, there has not been an Altcoin that has retained a great value. The space is still so incredibly new that everything right now is the wild west. Its a very complicated topic in which could not be discussed here as it would clutter up the thread, but there are tons of talks on bitcointalk.org you ccan research to find the answers and ideas about this topic. 

* In $ at todays levels what is a 980 or  4 core 3.50Ghz I7 worth for 24 hours production ?

• If you go to our website foldingcoin.net and go to "The Coin" tab you will see a profit calculator that we have created to give you an estimate of what you would earn per day. Right now it isnt great, but thats because our coin is still in the infancy compared to other alts out there. 

Thanks for the courteous reply, re-reading my post it could have been taken as a tad aggresive.
I think you are aware of the position, to quote you   "Many FAH users do not care about crypto at all"     and I for one was initially surprised to see your posting in here.
On reflection, thanks for the informative post. I am a newbie to this team and have many many times less to lose than others here, but it sounds like more hassle than it is worth to me.
 
Maybe you also need a post in the guide section to tempt the new starters for EVGA who have nothing to lose ?

Tried to join you but I failed to verify my wallet address because I don´t have any BTC and the "sign a message" method doesn´t work. Is there third way to do it or what I need to do to get things running?

FoldingCoin

kisakeissi
Tried to join you but I failed to verify my wallet address because I don´t have any BTC and the "sign a message" method doesn´t work. Is there third way to do it or what I need to do to get things running?

The signed message feature is currently not working with Counterparty. However you do not need to join the LTB website at this time. You simply need to add - _ALL_WalletAddress to the end of your existing Donorname on FAH and you will begin to earn the tokens. Please go to the front page of foldingcoin.net and there is the 2 steps at the top of the home page that go through exactly what you need to do to get started. If you want to join the LTB forums, then you need to send a small amount of BTC to verify your address. If you fold for around 10 days, you will have enough BTC sent to you from folding to do this.

Ok, I give this a try. Folded only couple months under my original donor name and it´s not a big deal to change name. I hope this doesn´t mess Evga promotion which helps me to update my HW in the future. I also changed the name under evga website, so I hope it´s working. Am I right if I think that this is a funny gambling to fold 24/7 and hope that someday foldingcoins value will raise and cover my electricity bill costs? :) I made a calculation in your website and it said that I might earn about 0,59$/day and that is not enough to cover electricity :D

146Kilos
That is for 24/7 production ? 
If I understand it correctly that figure will nose dive down as more people join and never go up again.
I must be missing something because I just can't see the attraction of it. But on the other hand it pays more than EVGA Bucks at current levels.
Please keep us posted on how it goes and maybe an idiots guide on how to set it up if you think it was worth the effort.

I cant post hot lins, but the idiots guide can be found on the front page of foldingcoin.net at the very top of the introduction paragraph
 

1: Create a crypto currency to piggy back off btc.
2: Market and hype said currency to people and unwitting consumers.
3: Dump your shares of the currency when it peaks.
4: Pretend that crypto currency isn't a fiat based monetary system but ignore the fact that its value is posted in fiat dollars.

Sightbain
1: Create a crypto currency to piggy back off btc.
2: Market and hype said currency to people and unwitting consumers.
3: Dump your shares of the currency when it peaks.
4: Pretend that crypto currency isn't a fiat based monetary system but ignore the fact that its value is posted in fiat dollars.

These are very good points and they are often the struggle of the crypto world. I will answers these, however I do not want this forum to turn into a debate of why are cryptos good, because there are other threads for that. But can you answer me this, even if everything bad about crypto is true, I dont think you can deny that introducing a crypto in FAH can only bring more adoption, FLDC participants are already %10 of the entire FAH network. That says something.

1. This crypto does piggyback off BTC so therefor we do not need to maintain our own blockchain which allows us to create new and exciting features such as the marketplace that we have been working on
2. The difference of our hype and other coin hypes is we do not deny the fact tat FLDC will not be the next USD. We want FLDC to be a platform for many tokens to distribute on. So unlike the traditional mining method of "pick which coin to mine" you mine with us and you are mining (actually folding) for many different coins and the energy is put to good use rather then useless blockchains. So now the coins that we are earning must be developed by each token dev teams to be usefull. If a couple fail and a couple succeed you will have them all (plus the energy is once again not wasted). FLDC will be useful for the ebay marketplace we are building
3. The devs actually dont have that many shares, and much of it is but aside for promtional give aways and any issues for donors who set their username wrong. All of the devs combined together have about 12 million FLDC of the 131 million in existence
4. Crypto isnt fiat based, its faith based, but since the world mostly still uses fiat currency it would be impossible to trade for anything else. So I fail to see your arguement here, of course it has to be traded against fiat, that doesnt make it backed by fiat

I'm not so sure it's proper to be recruiting in our team forum, but hey what do I know?

notfordman
I'm not so sure it's proper to be recruiting in our team forum, but hey what do I know?

I am not recruiting, I dont want anyone to move teams. I am just making the point that crypto can bring FAH computational power to exponentially higher levels then it currently is. Take a look at the computational power put towards crypto coins (many of which just die or become scams) and put it up against FAH. It is upwards of 20x as powerful. Why not introduce a crypto to FAH and make it not only profitable, but also harness the power that is being wasted with altcoins?
 
You absolutely can stay on EVGA team, you just need to change your donor name

bcavnaugh

FoldingCoin

notfordman
I'm not so sure it's proper to be recruiting in our team forum, but hey what do I know?

I am not recruiting, I dont want anyone to move teams. I am just making the point that crypto can bring FAH computational power to exponentially higher levels then it currently is. Take a look at the computational power put towards crypto coins (many of which just die or become scams) and put it up against FAH. It is upwards of 20x as powerful. Why not introduce a crypto to FAH and make it not only profitable, but also harness the power that is being wasted with altcoins?
 
You absolutely can stay on EVGA team, you just need to change your donor name

Not that it is my number one reason for Folding but our donor name must match our EVGA Account Name.
If we change our donor name we would no longer be eligible for EVGA-Bucks. 

Now I can understand not wanting to give up your EVGA bucks, and if thats the case I would understand. However, by creating a new username could you not still earn the same amount of EVGA bucks in addition to the cryptocurrencies on a new account?

I can see why this would not be attractive and I wouldnt blame anyone for not wanting to change. However, changing your donor name and helping bring more adoption to crypto in FAH will ultimately attract more miners to come on board. We could be wrong and this might fail, but we have already increased the FAH network by 5% since we began and we currently pay out 10% of the whole network in FLDC. So we really think we are onto something.
 
Unlike CURE which i am sure many of you are familiar with, you can stay on your team. I would love as much feedback from you as possible on how we can attract more donors to partake. But we have looked time and time agian on how we could allow one to keep their current username and we cannot come up with a solution that could provably verify someone. any thoughts?

bcavnaugh

FoldingCoin

bcavnaugh

FoldingCoin

notfordman
I'm not so sure it's proper to be recruiting in our team forum, but hey what do I know?

I am not recruiting, I dont want anyone to move teams. I am just making the point that crypto can bring FAH computational power to exponentially higher levels then it currently is. Take a look at the computational power put towards crypto coins (many of which just die or become scams) and put it up against FAH. It is upwards of 20x as powerful. Why not introduce a crypto to FAH and make it not only profitable, but also harness the power that is being wasted with altcoins?
 
You absolutely can stay on EVGA team, you just need to change your donor name

Not that it is my number one reason for Folding but our donor name must match our EVGA Account Name.
If we change our donor name we would no longer be eligible for EVGA-Bucks. 

Now I can understand not wanting to give up your EVGA bucks, and if thats the case I would understand. However, by creating a new username could you not still earn the same amount of EVGA bucks in addition to the cryptocurrencies on a new account?

I can see why this would not be attractive and I wouldnt blame anyone for not wanting to change. However, changing your donor name and helping bring more adoption to crypto in FAH will ultimately attract more miners to come on board. We could be wrong and this might fail, but we have already increased the FAH network by 5% since we began and we currently pay out 10% of the whole network in FLDC. So we really think we are onto something.
 
Unlike CURE which i am sure many of you are familiar with, you can stay on your team. I would love as much feedback from you as possible on how we can attract more donors to partake. But we have looked time and time agian on how we could allow one to keep their current username and we cannot come up with a solution that could provably verify someone. any thoughts?

No Not Really, doing so would also require us to create a new Email Address as well.
I do not think that EVGA would allow us to have TWO Accounts to manage our Products.
And I know they do not allow two accounts.
Also this would tie together EVGA and Crypto Coin Mining, at least in my mind.

Well im saying (even though i already know the answer is no) abandoning your existing account and starting fresh. And would tieing together EVGA and Crypto mining really be a bad thing? Think of this: EVGA bucks could actually convert to a crypto coin and then it can become trad able from person to person from outside your accounts. Now I know that isnt something they would be interested in at this time, but the possability is there. And if EVGA bucks where a crypto coin, that actually would encourage more folks to fold on the EVGA team as they would be able to sell the EVGA bucks to other individuals.

 

This also would kill our Number One Team Rank and each user would also start of from Zero as if they never Folded before.
 
Why are you Pushing So Hard?
 
How Much Do You Get Paid For Each Team Member That Leaves And Joins You.


I do not get paid anything, in fact I get paid less. We do not take any FLDC off the top. FoldingCoin is a nonprofit with the goals of trying to bring more computational power to FAH. Just as FAH itself is a 501(c)3 we are as well (our 501(c)3 is still pending but it will be issued to us). It is good to clearly state again: We are non profit just as the Red  Cross, there is no profit motive for us. We feel eventually we will bring in donations for our efforts to pay ourselves down the line to do this from support of interested parties, but right now we are simply building it and gaining donors. We did just receive a $3,000 donation that will really help develop new features we are releasing