Great post! I appreciate the update. I have been participating to the BOINC project through the Gridcoin network for some time. Unfortunately, the mining pool I use as a BOINC manager has not made any payouts and the site has not been updated in some time. It would be great if there were a more organized community behind the effort.
It will also be interesting to see how well the BOINC/Gridcoin network will fair against the likes of bigger initiatives such as Golem, and SONM.
I advice you to try the GRCpool since you are most likely using Katiees Pool. Unfortunately katiee hasn't been around for a long time and her pool is still online making sporadic payouts.
I think Gridcoin has a great advantage towards other networks since it's based on a use-and-we-pay method. Golem will be a pay-for-usage model. We also have a long developed open-source program with BOINC being 15 years this year.
I can't see why Gridcoin couldn't be a good competitor. Just because Gridcoin wasn't founded on a large scale ICO with bells, whistles and unicorns doesn't mean its any less of a big player.