The idea to pair up worthy projects (think scientists folding proteins or doing something computationally intensive) with spare cycles is an old one.
I'm not sure how efficient this approach is. I got the impression when I tried to donate some cycles recently (spare servers) that its not widely used. Anybody has any experiences they would like to share? I'd love to hear.
The IBM project is definitely active — their homepage currently says there are 721k volunteers participating, and there's a monthly email newsletter that covers their sub-projects' progress.
For an example of a current project, see OpenZika[3].
I see projects like BOINC and Jason Scott's ArchiveTeam Warrior[4] as a sort of "botnet for good" — if you have some bandwidth + margin in your monthly electricity budget, why not? I'm essentially spending a bit of electricity each month to help contribute to (and be a participant in) these projects. Their marketing must be working, because it "feels good" to be a part of them. :)
I don't know enough about CPU use + electrical costs to truly gauge the impact of my devices, e.g. vs. spending the same amount of $ on a fast, modern server running on clean power in an Icelandic datacenter. But having an old laptop or two + a few old Android devices running 24x7 hasn't noticeably appeared on my monthly PG&E bill.
[1] https://github.com/BOINC/boinc
[2] https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/discover.action
[3] https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/zika/overview.do
[4] http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=ArchiveTeam_Warri...
Disclaimer: IBMer, simply sharing an observation, not talking on behalf of organization, etc.
I remember it has been used to crack firmware signing keys for TI calculators.
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/news/articles/14/145/145273.h...