Gridcoin New Feature; Side-Staking (and what I am doing with it!)
New Toys
In the latest Gridcoin release version 4.0.2 a new feature call "side-staking" was enabled.
Borowed from one of my other favourite coins Pinkcoin, side-staking is a way to share the rewards you earn from staking your coins amongst several addresses.
In Gridcoin, each time you stake a block, you get 10GRC, any fees from transactions that occurred in that block and any accumulated BOINC Research rewards. Until now, that automatically just gets sent back to the address that staked the block.
Side-staking lets you split that reward into upto (in the current version) six lots, which can be sent to other addresses, not just the staking address. You might not immediately see the point, but this has some interesting features. The addresses that you share your stakes with, do not necessarily need to be your own.
For example if you had a freind who was trying to build some initial stake, you could share them a bit of your GRC. The point is, you share as you earn, and in this sense it feels less 'painful', you never see the GRC in the first place, so you never miss it.
Personally I am using side-staking already to help fund https://boincstats.com/en/bam/
A percentage of every stake I make is going to BOINCStats; Willy has been a tireless and central figure in the BOINC universe for a long time, and so many people enjoy his efforts, but its not a cheap thing for him to do. He has a funding page (https://boincstats.com/en/page/donate) and is always in need of support.
I checked in with Willy yesterday and he confirmed he will keep his current GRC address https://boincstats.com/en/forum/4/9117,1
I also think its great for our Gridcoin Devs to see new features they worked hard to build, in actual usage!
Will you Side-Stake?
I dont have a list of BOINC projects that accept GRC donations but I believe there are some, so maybe you will want to give it a try yourself, if so, let everyone know (and probably good to check in with the project too).
If you arent sure how to use side staking, check the recent release notes, but it is pretty simple, add to your gridcoinresearch.conf file:
enablesidestaking=1
sidestake=Gridcoin_Recipient_Address,Percentage_Share
As the developer that coded sidestaking and stakesplitting, I am very happy to see your enthusiasm and creative ways to use sidestaking! :)
I look forwards to future developments. If you make new buttons, I promise to press them all :)
A new tool to use!
I'm looking forward to experimenting with side-staking and funding models, also inspired by PINK
Are you thinking of an alternate reward mechanism? The idea of side-staked rain came into my mind earlier. If a project wanted to reward crunchers they could buy a stake of GRC, and auto-rain the side-stake... crazy :) They dont have to spend, to incentivise crunchers, but they do have to secure the chain...!
Yeah essentially stuff like that and the donate4life model PINK uses that burns the donated coins in a hot wallet and sends the staking rewards of that wallet to the project seeking funding
Hmm, how do you stake burned coins?
If I send GRC to a wallet to which there is no key they are burned. If I set that wallet up so it is staking, it would stake the rewards into itself and any staking rewards would also be burned. If I set the wallet up to side-stake to a wallet where someone has the key, the balance of the staking wallet remains burned, but the rewards from staking can be used.
This opens a number of doors.
I spoke a bit about this in the last fireside at about the 46 minute mark:
https://grcpod.podbean.com/
I hear what you are saying, but if the burn address has no associated private key, how would it sign the coinstake transaction? I assume wallets sign the block against the address used to stake, right?
I might be misunderstanding something. I'm thinking from the mindset of a burn wallet being pretty much the same as a wallet someone owns but forgot the key to access the balance. So if there's a wallet set up like that -- one that stakes and sends its rewards somewhere else, but no one knows how to access the balance... wouldn't that work? Is it possible?
Or there could be a contract that locks the funds for X time and sends stakes elsewhere... a CD with accessible interest.
Also. I wish steemit notified me of replies.
OK I see what you are saying. Yes an encrypted wallet with a lost passphrase for example could stake indefinately and the side stakes could go elsewhere. There is an element of trust I suppose in that you cant guarantee the passphrase is lost, someone (even accidentally) could still have a copy.
It is possible to make true burn addresses that have no possible authentic private key, and that is what I was thinking about, but they cannot stake because they cannot sign the coinstake transaction.
I agree with you on no reply notificatins on steemit, annoying!
Just gave 4000 GRC to BoincStat, hopefully it helps a bit.
Good to see well done
Love it, thanks for the update and for sharing such a great idea!