awesome-volunteer-computing
A curated list of awesome projects, platforms, and resources related to volunteer computing — donating idle computing power to solve real-world scientific and humanitarian problems.
https://github.com/ranjithrajv/awesome-volunteer-computing
Last synced: 2 days ago
JSON representation
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📺 Articles & Videos
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🌐 Browser-Based
- What is Volunteer Computing? - TechRadar - General overview article.
- Volunteer computing - Wikipedia - Comprehensive encyclopedia article.
- CERN Explainer: What is volunteer computing? - LHC@home - Explanation from the perspective of a major project.
- Khan Academy: Citizen science (article) - Discusses volunteer computing as a form of citizen science.
- Petals supports 405B via volunteer GPU swarm - Petals now supports Llama 3.1 405B through decentralized volunteer GPUs (Jul 2026).
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👥 Communities & Forums
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🌐 Browser-Based
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🛠️ For Developers
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🌐 Browser-Based
- BOINC Development Resources - dev-doc)) [](https://github.com/BOINC/boinc-dev-doc/stargazers) [](https://github.com/BOINC/boinc-dev-doc/network) [](https://github.com/BOINC/boinc-dev-doc/commits/main) - Comprehensive guide covering the SDK, APIs, server/client setup, and creating BOINC-compatible applications.
- Flower - commit/adap/flower)](https://github.com/adap/flower/commits/main) - A federated learning framework that enables training machine learning models across distributed devices while preserving data privacy. Supports PyTorch Lightning and other ML frameworks.
- webrtc-tree-overlay - tree-overlay)](https://github.com/elavoie/webrtc-tree-overlay/stargazers) [](https://github.com/elavoie/webrtc-tree-overlay/network) [](https://github.com/elavoie/webrtc-tree-overlay/commits/main) - A library for building scalable WebRTC P2P mesh networks in a tree overlay structure, useful for browser-based distributed applications.
- Volunteer Grid Toolkit (VGT) - Legacy-red)](https://sourceforge.net/projects/vgt/) – A toolkit for experimenting with volunteer grid computing concepts. *Note: Check project activity/relevance.*
- GridCoin Developer Information - based incentives (GridCoin) with distributed computing (primarily BOINC).
- Lattica - commit/GradientHQ/lattica)](https://github.com/GradientHQ/lattica/commits/main) - Decentralized cross-NAT communication framework for distributed AI. Features NAT traversal, CRDT-based data store, and DHT content discovery. ([Paper](https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2510.00183))
- GridCoin Developer Information - community/Gridcoin-Research)) [](https://github.com/gridcoin-community/Gridcoin-Research/stargazers) [](https://github.com/gridcoin-community/Gridcoin-Research/network) [](https://github.com/gridcoin-community/Gridcoin-Research/commits/main) - Resources for integrating blockchain-based incentives (GridCoin) with distributed computing (primarily BOINC).
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📄 License
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🌐 Browser-Based
- awesome - driven standard for curated knowledge.
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⚙️ Platforms & Infrastructure
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🌐 Browser-Based
- distri.js.org - dorta/Distri.js)) [](https://github.com/ethan-dorta/Distri.js/stargazers) [](https://github.com/ethan-dorta/Distri.js/network) [](https://github.com/ethan-dorta/Distri.js/commits/main) - A minimalist JavaScript framework enabling distributed computing inside any modern web browser using Web Workers.
- Pando - project/pando)](https://github.com/pando-project/pando/stargazers) [](https://github.com/pando-project/pando/network) [](https://github.com/pando-project/pando/commits/main) - A personal volunteer computing platform for the Web, allowing easy setup for personal or shared computations via JavaScript. ([See Paper](https://arxiv.org/vc/arxiv/papers/1804/1804.01482v1.pdf))
- Wasimoff - commit/wasimoff/wasimoff)](https://github.com/wasimoff/wasimoff/commits/main) - WebAssembly-based browser volunteer computing framework. Tasks run in isolated Web Workers with zero-setup participation. Published at IEEE PerCom Workshops 2024 and ACM Middleware 2024 demos.
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💻 Desktop-Native
- BOINC - commit/BOINC/boinc)](https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/commits/main) - The gold standard in open-source volunteer computing, powering dozens of scientific research projects.
- GridRepublic - A user-friendly frontend for managing BOINC projects and participation.
- Charity Engine - Turns donated computing power into charitable donations or rewards for users.
- XtremWeb
- XtremWeb - Legacy-red)](https://medium.com/iex-ec/iex-ec-adopts-xtremweb-hep-the-open-source-software-for-desktop-grid-computing-b5ad9836a54b) – Research platform for global distributed computing used by academic institutions.
- Fresco - commit/AufarZakiev/Fresco)](https://github.com/AufarZakiev/Fresco/commits/main) - Modern cross-platform BOINC Manager alternative built with Tauri and Vue. ~5 MB binary with dark mode, auto-update, and remote client support.
- NFS@home - Number field sieve factorization project. Factored RSA-240 (240 digits) in 2019. Hosted at Cal State Fullerton.
- YAFU - Integer factorization on BOINC. Active development with latest news in June 2026.
- Asteroids@home - Asteroid shape and spin determination from photometric observations using volunteer computing.
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🧬 Hybrid or Multi-Platform
- Petals - workshop/petals)) [](https://github.com/bigscience-workshop/petals/stargazers) [](https://github.com/bigscience-workshop/petals/network) [](https://github.com/bigscience-workshop/petals/commits/main) - Peer-to-peer network that runs large language models (LLMs) like BLOOM across distributed GPUs and contributors' machines.
- Exo - explore/exo)](https://github.com/exo-explore/exo/stargazers) [](https://github.com/exo-explore/exo/network) [](https://github.com/exo-explore/exo/commits/main) - Run your own AI cluster at home with everyday devices. Unifies existing devices (iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, NVIDIA, Raspberry Pi) into one powerful distributed GPU for running various AI models including LLaMA, Mistral, and LlaVA.
- MultiCortex EXO - exo)](https://github.com/cabelo/multicortex-exo/stargazers) [](https://github.com/cabelo/multicortex-exo/network) [](https://github.com/cabelo/multicortex-exo/commits/main) - A portable system that can be booted from a USB flash drive, with the fantastic Exo project pre-installed. It allows any computer to become a node for creating a decentralized AI framework. It allows pooling of computing power from multiple devices, leveraging CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, and other accelerators.
- autoresearch@home - network.ai/autoresearch)) [](https://github.com/mutable-state-inc/autoresearch-at-home/stargazers) [](https://github.com/mutable-state-inc/autoresearch-at-home/network) [](https://github.com/mutable-state-inc/autoresearch-at-home/commits/main) - A collaborative, SETI@home-style fork of autoresearch where multiple agents on different GPUs share results to improve language models through the Ensue shared memory network.
- AI Horde - Org/AI-Horde)) [](https://github.com/Haidra-Org/AI-Horde/stargazers) [](https://github.com/Haidra-Org/AI-Horde/network) [](https://github.com/Haidra-Org/AI-Horde/commits/main) - Crowdsourced volunteer GPU cluster for free AI image and text generation. Kudos-based incentive system. By Haidra, a registered non-profit in Luxembourg. Published at SciTS 2024 (IEEE International Conference on eScience).
- Hivemind - at-home/hivemind)](https://github.com/learning-at-home/hivemind/stargazers) [](https://github.com/learning-at-home/hivemind/network) [](https://github.com/learning-at-home/hivemind/commits/main) - PyTorch library for decentralized deep learning over the internet. Enables training models across volunteer GPUs without central coordination. Powers Petals and other distributed ML projects. NeurIPS 2021 demonstration.
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📱 Mobile-Based
- DreamLab - Vodafone Foundation's mobile app that powers medical and nutritional research while your phone charges.
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🔗 Related Concepts
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🌐 Browser-Based
- Zooniverse - Popular platform for web-based citizen science projects (classification, transcription).
- SciStarter - Hub for discovering citizen science projects.
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🔍 Related & Historical Projects
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🌐 Browser-Based
- SETI@home - Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence using volunteer computing. Ran 1999-2020, analyzing radio signals from space.
- SETI@home Data Analysis Paper - Final scientific analysis of SETI@home signal data (The Astronomical Journal, 2025).
- SETI@home Data Acquisition Paper - Technical overview of SETI@home's distributed data processing architecture (The Astronomical Journal, 2025).
- SETI@home publishes final data results - 21 years of citizen science: 12B signals analyzed, 100 candidate signals identified (Berkeley News, 2025).
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📚 Research & Papers
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🌐 Browser-Based
- BOINC: A Platform for Volunteer Computing - Describes the architecture, features, and implementation of the widely used BOINC middleware.
- The Computational and Storage Potential of Volunteer Computing - Analyzes measurements from ~330k hosts to assess the capacity of volunteer computing beyond CPU power.
- Research on the Task Assignment Problem with Maximum Benefits in Volunteer Computing Platforms - Explores task scheduling strategies for maximizing benefits in VCPs considering deadlines.
- Retaining volunteers in volunteer computing projects - Investigates factors influencing volunteer retention and contribution levels.
- Personal Volunteer Computing - Proposes a more personal, web-based approach to volunteer computing and introduces the Pando platform.
- Volunteer computing: A model of factors determining contribution to community-based scientific research - Develops and tests a model of user motivation based on SETI@home survey data and activity logs.
- "Improving the Productivity of Volunteer Computing" (Toth, 2008) - Examines task retrieval policies and techniques to increase productivity.
- AIArena: Scalable and Secure Decentralized AI Training - Blockchain-based decentralized AI training with 600+ training nodes and 63K delegators.
- Lattica: Decentralized Cross-NAT Communication - Framework for distributed AI with NAT traversal, CRDT-based data store, and DHT content discovery.
- Cislunar Orbit Stability Census via VC - Uses BOINC and deep learning for 1M orbit stability analysis.
- Distributed Deep Learning Using VC-Like Paradigm - 70-90% cost reduction using volunteer computing paradigm for distributed deep learning.
- Boltz-1: Open-source biomolecular structure prediction - First open-source model matching AlphaFold3 accuracy. ([Repo](https://github.com/jwohlwend/boltz))
- Lattica: Decentralized Cross-NAT Communication - Framework for distributed AI with NAT traversal, CRDT-based data store, and DHT content discovery.
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📈 Star History
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🌐 Browser-Based
-  | [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q386283))
- Rosetta@home - Predicts protein structures and supports synthetic biology innovation. ([Repo](https://github.com/RosettaCommons/rosetta) | [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q898343))
- World Community Grid - Runs humanitarian research on health, sustainability, and climate change. ([Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q826776))
- Einstein@Home - Searches for gravitational waves and pulsars in massive astrophysical datasets.
- Asteroids@Home
- LHC@home - commit/lfield/lhcathome)](https://github.com/lfield/lhcathome/commits/main) - Simulates CERN's Large Hadron Collider experiments to advance particle physics.
- Wikipedia
- GPUGRID.net
- PrimeGrid - Searches for various types of prime numbers including Generalized Fermat, Cullen, Woodall, and mega primes.
- SRBase - Mathematical research solving Sierpinski/Riesel conjectures and finding large prime numbers.
- yoyo@home - Multi-project platform including ECM factorization, M Queens puzzle, and distributed.net OGR computations.
- NumberFields@home - Algebraic number theory research searching for fields with special mathematical properties.
- Science United - BOINC platform supporting multiple research areas with user-selected project categories.
- The Ramanujan Machine - AI-driven discovery of new mathematical formulas and conjectures using volunteer computing.
- UCLA SETI (Zooniverse) - Citizen science project classifying radio signals to search for extraterrestrial intelligence.
- SIDock@home - Biomedical research focusing on drug discovery and molecular docking simulations.
- iThena - Computer science research on distributed computing algorithms and systems.
- LODA - Mathematics project using LODA language to find integer sequences and patterns.
- DENIS@Home - Medical physiology research from San Jorge University studying human physiological systems.
- GIMPS - Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, discovered the largest known prime in 2024 (41M digits).
- AI for Cryptic Pockets - Attention-enabled PocketMiner predicts cryptic pockets and allosteric coupling for drug discovery.
- AE-PocketMiner paper - Graph neural network with attention for predicting cryptic pockets and allosteric communication (bioRxiv, 2026).
- Three new gamma-ray pulsars in the inner galaxy - New pulsars discovered via Einstein@home volunteer computing (Sep 2025).
- AI and Folding@home - Overview of how AI accelerates Folding@home research in structure prediction, data analysis, and software development.
- GPUGRID.net - Molecular dynamics and protein simulations on GPUs for drug discovery and biomedical research.
- distributed.net - Cryptographic challenges and optimal Golomb ruler searches, completed OGR-28 in 2022.
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Programming Languages
Categories
Keywords
pytorch
2
machine-learning
2
deep-learning
2
python
1
ios
1
grpc
1
framework
1
flower
1
fleet-learning
1
fleet-intelligence
1
federated-learning-framework
1
federated-learning
1
federated-analytics
1
cpp
1
artificial-intelligence
1
android
1
ai
1
rust
1
peer-to-peer
1
networking
1
decentralized
1
ai-infra
1
volunteer-computing
1
neural-networks
1
mixture-of-experts
1
hivemind
1
distributed-training
1
distributed-systems
1
dht
1
asyncio
1
asynchronous-programming
1
tensorflow
1
scikit-learn
1
raspberry-pi
1