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Licensing around developing 3rd party client

Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2021 9:12 pm
by Nan0Scho1ar
Hi

I have recently learned that one reason for the large spike in performance of the network was due to several crypto miners contributing to the network. This got me wondering if there is a way to keep them involved as well as bring in more. I have some experience working with the LBRY network and thought it may benefit the f@h project to incorporate some of that technology. In particular using a peer to peer network to cache the results in times of peak load to reduce stress on the central server, or even as a permanent storage solution. It could also be beneficial to award users a cryptocurrency for contributing computing power to the project or for cataloging the results available in the peer to peer network.

From what I've read f@h is closed source so I'm not certain how this option would fit into the picture in terms of licensing. Does anyone have information regarding this or who I could contact before I begin development/if I'm even allowed?

Thanks

Re: Licensing around developing 3rd party client

Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2021 10:15 pm
by Foliant
Nan0Scho1ar wrote:award users a cryptocurrency for contributing
Have you heard about Curecoin?

Re: Licensing around developing 3rd party client

Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2021 10:41 pm
by Joe_H
There are teams that award cryptocurrency, that is not a discussion for here. As for the F@h project awarding cryptocurrency itself, that would be a legal problem for most if not all organizations involved in the Folding@home Consortium.

As for the client, part of the apps distributed as the "client" are open source. The core portion, FAHClient is not. Current terms of use require it to be downloaded from the foldingathome.org site or through a few permitted partner sites. WUs and the associated folding cores can only be obtained from F@h servers, and the WUs returned to those servers.

Plans are for the entire client to be open source at some point in the future. Developers interested in working on the client would make contact through the F@h Discord channel.

Re: Licensing around developing 3rd party client

Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2021 12:01 am
by PantherX
Welcome to the F@H Forum Nan0Scho1ar,

Please note that as of January 14 2019, the official stance is that F@H doesn't endorse any cryptocurrencies but is happy to engage with all participants as long as they follow the EULA: https://foldingathome.org/2019/01/14/fo ... urrencies/