What is Gridcoin?
Gridcoin combines the classic proof of stake algorithm with an interesting 2nd-layer reward mechanism. Namely, users are rewarded with additional Gridcoins if they make their computing power available to research via the program BOINC. There are all kinds of projects, from mathematics to astrophysics to cancer research.
BOINC Logo
What about manual rewards claim?
Until recently, more precisely before block 2,671,700, the 2nd layer reward was only paid out if users staked. This led to the fact that either an initial investment was required or that users had to use pools. However, with version 5.4.0.0 of the wallet Manual Rewards Claim was introduced. Users can press a button to request their 2nd-layer rewards. The next user who stakes a block will, for a fee, pay out these rewards. So this is very similar to how claiming rewards works here on Hive. Only that on Hive no fees need to be paid.
Further benefits to MRC
As mentioned above, fees are paid for using MRC. These fees depend on when rewards were last requested. This prevents the blockchain from being overloaded by the rapid reward claims. More specifically, the fee is determined as follows:
The total fee starts at 40% of the rewards at 14 days and then
declines as 14/(number of days) as the interval between payments is increased.
Through a vote on the blockchain, it was determined that 80% of the fees will go into a multisignature wallet. These funds are there to support the further development, marketing and community of Gridcoin. Since MRC was introduced about 24 hours ago, 22 MRC payments have already been made.