Gridcoin was inwards a sideways lull for most of the summer, oscillating betwixt 300-400 Satoshis on
Bittrex in addition to
Poloniex, exactly the past times ii months convey been real exciting - to tell the least. September ushered inwards a massive bull marketplace that has propelled this innovative cryptocurrency to a novel all-time high of 2088 Satoshis (0.00002088) - a six-fold increase inwards the infinite of ii months! According to figures provided past times
Coinmarketcap, Gridcoin is currently ranked 20th alongside a marketplace capitalization of $1,809,350.
Membership Statistics: This rapid appreciation of the GRC/BTC telephone commutation charge per unit of measurement has also had real tangible knock-on effects on the growth of Gridcoin's user base. I compiled some figures from
Boincstats.com, which real clearly illustrate this trend. Team Gridcoin had a steady influx of novel members throughout the calendar month of August, averaging virtually 2.9 novel members per day, alongside a few sporadic jumps hither in addition to there.
However, the information for September clearly shows a surge inwards novel Boinc members joining Gridcoin. The average jumps to 7.5 novel members per day, alongside a full of 225 novel members for the calendar month of September.
Although in that location is nevertheless ii weeks left of October, the membership statistics for this calendar month are fifty-fifty to a greater extent than telling. Team Gridcoin has received 260 novel members inwards the final 17 days, in addition to is currently averaging virtually 15.3 novel members per day. That is almost double the average of September in addition to we're alone one-half agency through October!
Faucet Statistics: 
Gridcoin's
official faucet provides a small-scale amount of GRC to newcomers who tin ship away exhibit that they convey already joined squad Gridcoin, in addition to convey done some come about the Boinc projection of their choosing.
Log information provided past times the official Gridcoin faucet shows a real sizable increase inwards the amount of faucet request, in addition to also inwards the amount of disbursed GRC inwards the past times ii months. Data for September revealed 103 unique faucet requests, which totaled virtually 30,074 GRC. The outset 17 days of Oct posted much higher figures, coming inwards at 248 requests in addition to about 82908.3 GRC existence dispensed.
Other Developments: The recent streak of proficient fortune the Gridcoin community has experienced over the past times ii months seems to convey caught the attending of ane prominent Australian economist,
John Quiggin. In ane of his recent articles on digital currencies (
Bitcoins are a waste materials of liberate energy - literally), Quiggin points out the 'useless' nature of the calculations performed inwards the Bitcoin mining procedure in addition to the environmental harm that volition termination if this type of mining continues unabated.
"In essence, the creation of a novel Bitcoin requires the functioning of a complex calculation that has no value except to exhibit that it has been done."
"Fortunately, it's unlikely that Bitcoin volition endure long plenty to generate the environmental disaster that would arise if it became a major business office of the fiscal system."
In contrast to Bitcoin's PoW (Proof-of-Work) mining,
Gridcoin was specifically designed to divert electricity to Boinc scientific distributed computing projects via its
POR (Proof-of-Research) mining algorithm. This is in all probability why John Quiggin took a liking to Gridcoin on Twitter:
Conclusions: Based on the membership figures in addition to faucet data, it would seem that the recent cost increase has provided sufficient incentive for many miners in addition to first-time digital currency users to bring together the altruistic vision behind Gridcoin. If GRC/BTC continues to drift higher, or fifty-fifty if it trades inwards the electrical flow range, it would non surprise me to come across an fifty-fifty bigger influx of novel Boinc members inwards Nov in addition to December.
Sources:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-06/quiggin-bitcoins-are-a-waste-of-energy/6827940
http://pool.gridcoin.us/FaucetStatus.aspx
http://boincstats.com/en/stats/-1/team/detail/118094994/memberMovement
