Honestly, it's not very clear !

My first impression was "what's that?"

A website that is similar to GPUGRID, a scientific project that uses GPU's ATI / AMD.....But not in fact it is not to run simulations, but given the computing time to convert that into money !!!!

what's that, a new economic order ?

Honestly I do not want to give my GPU time for money even if this money back into this GPUGRID !

There is a donation system for this !

what I want is to run my hardware to perform real simulations are useful.

I am disappointed :-(

Hi,

You need to do a lot of work because it looks like a scam. Scamming boinc users who don't know bitcoin, and letting bitcoiners beware of boinc.

At the moment, it's a 100% fee pool, and people shouldn't use this. It's something for me to monitor - better would simply to allow bitcoin donation.

Patrick

I like your idea of being able to donate a bitcoin. It should be considered.

what's that, a new economic order ?

The primary aim of D@H is to fund a researcher at GPUGRid and any funds generated will go towards GPUGrid.
...
Using a GPU to fund a researcher via bitcoin mining should just be seen as a novel donation method.

Finally I found some information - in the GPUGRID cafe! :D

We seriously thought this was a scam/fraud project during first days at the team...finally there seems to have been more information and WHOIS directing to Gianni, so at least to somebody involved linking to GPUGRID. Not really brilliant on information.

But what really bugs me: you DO know how to make high paying projects! Now that ATIs can be used for generating money, they get real credits. What does that tell about the appreciation for the science work done?

Basically I think it's a smart idea, but this is looking dubious in so many ways, I really find that hard to believe, sorry.
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Of course we have spoken with the University before starting it and it works similarly to the donations with paypal from the admin perspective.

gdf

Have you considered the impact that donate@home is having on the environment? You ask us to crunch nonsense tasks on our GPUs and waste a lot of electricity in the process. This pollutes the earths atmosphere with a lot of unnecessary CO2. All of this just to generate a few meager euros?? Have you calculated how many kWh of electricity need to be spent just to generate 1 BitCoin? And how much that electricity costs us?

I think this is a really bad idea showing reckless disregard for the earths environment. I am really disappointed and will stop running GPUGRID at least until this donate@home site has disappeared.

I agree with you that bitcoin computing is absolute waste of energy and earth ressources. But nobody must join Donate@home ;) Donate on the traditional way when you want to donate for gpugrip, and compute like you computed until today ;)
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DSKAG Austria Research Team: http://www.research.dskag.at

I am really disappointed and will stop running GPUGRID at least until this donate@home site has disappeared.

I agree with you that bitcoin computing is absolute waste of energy and earth ressources. But nobody must join Donate@home ;) Donate on the traditional way when you want to donate for gpugrip, and compute like you computed until today ;)

I see this issue as follows:

1. There are several ATi owners (and lesser nVidia card owners like me was for more than a year), who'd like to contribute to GPUGrid, but they can't.
2. Some of these potential contributors complaining for years for an ATi client, they get tired of waiting in vain, therefore they get frustrated.
3. The people at GPUGrid get tired of making an ATi client for their project, get frustrated from the complaints, but luckily they came across donate@home, and think "Wow! finally we can offer a way to our potential contributors to become actual contributors!" therefore they set up this donate@home website for them.
4. Some of the potential and some of the actual contributors gets angry, because from their point of view donate@home is not green enough, it's a scam, it's dubious, it's against the idea of grid computing, while nobody forcing them to join.

I would like to encourage these potential contributors that instead of waiting in vain and wasting the researchers' time with complaining, they should take some actions, like selling their cards, and donating the money they received for their cards directly to GPUGrid (it's very green, it's not a scam, it's straightforward, it's supporting the idea of grid computing); or adding a little amount to it, and buying a CC2.0 nVidia card to become an actual contributor. I did the latter. It works.

You can't work out the relative electrical cost against creation of BitCoins/funds without actually trying it, and trying to develop apps.

I would like to encourage these potential contributors that instead of waiting in vain and wasting the researchers' time with complaining, they should take some actions, like selling their cards, and donating the money they received for their cards directly to GPUGrid (it's very green, it's not a scam, it's straightforward, it's supporting the idea of grid computing); or adding a little amount to it, and buying a CC2.0 nVidia card to become an actual contributor. I did the latter. It works.

To SMTB:

You misunderstood me, maybe I was not clear.
My suggestion was for the potential volunteers that they should change their ATi (AMD) card, if they do not like the idea of donate@home, because at the moment the only way to directly contribute to GPUGrid is by crunching for the project with top nVidia cards (or by donating it).
I hope it'll change for the better, namely the top AMD card owners could crunch for the project too, but it still will require the latest GCN architecture models i.e. many ATi (AMD) owners have to sell their current cards and get a new one.
But, I think - against any complaints - the current situation is better than before donate@home, and donate@home was made with the best intentions of the GPUGrid staff.

To SMTB:

You misunderstood me, maybe I was not clear.

Donate@Home is intriguing, and its early days yet. As in all things "one size dont fit all", especially if an individual retains flat out irreversible opinion on a topic.

The financial aspect of a Bitcoin Group is often stated and played with, and from a simplistic Bitcoin group, thats very pertinent, after all thats what they went there for - dosh :)

There is another dimension when set in a BOINC context. Many BOINC'rs will be crunching away to a lesser or greater degree because they enjoy BOINC Projects and what they can bring in terms of sense of achievement or friendships. Indeed most times, its the latter two that attract many crunchers. In that context, the PC will be on anyway, its just a case of which Project do they want to play with.

From that angle, the investment in the hardware was made as a hobby, and thats what BOINC is to many people - an "enabling" hobby. So its not really relevant what they crunch in those contexts as the cost is viewed by the individual in a different manner, and less clinically. Lots of intangibles are involved - its not a simplistic Dollars and Cents equation.

Whether those individuals spend 7x24 looking for the rarest Prime Numbers in existance - and many, many other maths based projects - or go for scientific endeavors, or indeed spend thousands of dollars a year wacking a small white ball round a field known as a golf course (you'll note I'm not a golfer rofl), is a personal choice. Since my PCs will be crunching anyway, I see little diffeence crunching to find a Bitcoin, as "wasting" 99.9999% of computing time searching for a PrimeNumber - as a simplistic example. I do both in reality, and enjoy doing both.

Deductions about the Donate@Home's of this world will always differ, as do peoples motivations and practices. One hobby/working practice does not necessarily have the support of some, but does with others. Whatever is chosen, its important to compare apples with apples - not take one genre as a detraction against another. Some purest Bitcoin groups will think we BOINCr's are barking mad to crunch for no tangible personal reward. Some BOINCrs will think purest Bitcoin groups are a waste of resource and more akin to an electronic lottery.

Reality is, both are right, because they do what suits them as individuals, in their particular unique circumstances. One size dont fit all, especially where hobbies are concerned.

Regards
Zy

On several occasions I mentioned that the performance of NVidia is ~1/3rd that of ATI for D@H, so did GDF, and others. I also suggested that people use their high end NVidia's here. On the D@H site there is a new 'Project' page with a link to performance of cards.It basically shows all NVidia cards as being incapable of gaining enough bitcoins to pay for the card+running cost.

Better still make an online calculator so people can enter the GPU cost, electric cost and just be told how efficient or inefficient a card actually is. Would be useful to be able to enter actual Watts consumed too!

The thing is, D@H puts monetary considerations at the forefront

Funny...I don't see any posts on the D@H forum from you, GDF or any other project admin that states "the performance of NVidia is ~1/3rd that of ATI" - or anything to that effect. And while the information contained on the D@H project page is a step in the right direction, a link to an outdated, error filled table buried in a 1278 word page isn't an effective way of informing potential volunteers of the issue.

@Zydor: I think your points regarding crunching as a hobby have alot of merit, in that the "money" factor plays little, if any, role for crunchers who are doing it for the sheer enjoyment of the activity. The thing is, D@H puts monetary considerations at the forefront. It is perfectly reasonable to expect a potential D@H volunteer to want cost vs benefit data when determining his or her idea of the "value" of the project. Right now, such information is not readily available on the D@H website.

I confess that I was a little shocked by donate@home, after seeing discussed with other people, I better understood the purpose of this project.

And I decided to support this project and to continue my participation in GPUGRID!