Folding Forum

I've been folding for about a month now. I was told I should get a passkey. I did but when I added it to my identity (via the web client) my “points earned” dropped to zero. I guess it counts as a different identity with the passkey? Is there any way to merge a passkey into an existing account?

(If not, I will probably not use my passkey. Since as near as I can tell the benefit is to get more points (via bonuses) but using it will ignore/remove the points I’ve earned so far. Not a big deal either way, my goal is to contribute compute power not earn points.)

It is counting them as separate IDs in the app, on the web it is grouped, but I do not find Craig_Reynolds anywhere. You may wish to check your name.

Within the F@H database, all of these are considered different identities:
Craig_Reynolds
Craig_Reynolds + Passkey1
Craig_Reynolds + Passkey2

The Webcontrol looks for Craig_Reynolds + Passkey since there's no enforcement of unique usernames. The combination of username + passkey is always unique. Do note that if you provide the same username and email address, you will get the same passkey.

Assuming your controbution to Craig_Reynolds (+no passkey) is static once you become Craig_Reynolds + Passkey1, you can mentally add those earlier points to whatever you see.

Once you've started using a Passkey and complete 10 WUs and maintain an 80% success rate, you'll start getting the bonus points which are a very important contributor to your account. It won't be long before you'll just forget about those orginal points because you'll make them up rapidly.

Thanks Bruce and others for the information. OK I switched back to “folding as” user_name + passkey. If the web client is to be believed, it is estimating 12732 points for the WU currently running. (Whereas it had been estimating 4476 without the passkey.) It seems to be granting me bonus status even though it thinks I have zero points.

JimboPalmer: thanks for your concern, but I downloaded the daily_user_summary.txt file from https://foldingathome.org/statistics/ — it listed my user name and correct stats.

(Again, I don’t see how the points matter. The motto of the improvisational comedy show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” was “the show where everything's made up and the points don't matter.” Thats what FAH feels like to me. Besides, I’m running on a Mac laptop, so it is CPU only, and my contribution is largely symbolic.)

Craig_Reynolds wrote:(Again, I don’t see how the points matter. The motto of the improvisational comedy show “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” was “the show where everything's made up and the points don't matter.” Thats what FAH feels like to me. Besides, I’m running on a Mac laptop, so it is CPU only, and my contribution is largely symbolic.)

I am often tempted to quote that, but the people want help, so I resist. Points can help when you have multiple ways to address a problem, "Does a slot of 20 and another slot of 20 make more points than a slot of 32 and another slot of 8?" "Is my CPU so slow that my GPU makes more points when the CPU does not run?" In these regards, points is an estimation of science produced.

Other than that, it is just bragging rights. Let me brag: 529,568,921 points, 160,179 WUs, since 02.03.09 See, I feel better already! (I do/did a lot of low value WUs)

CPU folding is important, because it is capable of subtlety that GPUs can't achieve. Very frequently you see that in the sense that GPUs are discovering how COVID-19 infects, but CPUs are testing possible treatments for COVID-19. When fine detail is important, CPUs matter.