COVID-19 FOLDING
The Candy Universe started as a small passion project to create webcomics and share them with the world. Over the last few years we’ve slowly grown, and when opportunities to do good present themselves we’ve used our limited audience to promote them.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every one of our fans and team members. Some of us more than others, but we’ve all been through a tough time because of the pandemic. Now with vaccines available there is a light at the end of the tunnel, but the spread of COVID-19 has led to multiple new variants of the virus which may or may not be covered under current vaccines.
In the face of these new variants and the potential for suffering they bring the Candy Universe has partnered with Folding @ home, a program run by Stanford University which allows everyday people to donate their computer resources to ongoing research into COVID-19, as well as various cancers and other medical research.
Although anyone can download and run this software to help fight COVID the Candy Universe is humbly requesting that our comic fans do so specifically. Despite the massive power and presence of the many companies which help promote Folding @ home there is still a good chance many of our fans have not heard of this before.
Additionally the Candy Universe is adding a few small bonuses to any fans who participate and meet certain goals. Most of our fans are not currently in a financial position to donate money directly to charity, and the Candy Universe competes with charity by asking for Pareton support and selling merchandise, even though we try to target these at fans who can comfortably afford both.
Please support the Candy Universe by supporting COVID research with Folding @ home. Not only does this make a difference, but it’s a way for all our fans with a computer to donate to a good cause, even if they otherwise couldn’t afford to do so.
folding rewards
As promised above the Candy Universe has special rewards for our fans to sweeten the deal. When folding your PC will earn points based on the amount of work it has completed. Here are your rewards, each unlocked after you reach the reward’s points goal.
A helping hand - 1 Million points
At 1 Million points most fans will be satisfied. Many PCs will take at least one month of crunching to get to this point, and that’s already quite the commitment. Reaching this goal will earn the fan a special poster, sent to them digitally. It’s an all new poster drawn specifically for our folders and only they get access to this art. Fans of this level also get a custom “COVID Folder” role on our Discord server, with its own unique pink shade not used for any other roles.
a heavy lifter - 100 million points
Reaching 100 Million points is a major milestone. Even with a powerful computer this amount of folding takes quite a while, and achieving it shows a real commitment by a fan. Those who reach this goal will get the same special poster, this time digitally signed by the Candy Universe staff and physically printed as an 17” by 11” tabloid size poster. For folders in the US shipping is free, while folders living internationally can either pay for shipping via PayPal or get free shipping for an additional 300 Million points (400M total).
A super nerd - 1.5 billion points
Folding 1,500,000,000 points worth of proteins is probably not a realistic goal for casual fans. This kind of dedication should really get a fan’s name etched onto the side of a hospital, but the Candy Universe doesn’t have the negotiating power for that… however, the Candy Universe does have an amazing team of artists! Any fan who gets to this point will earn a free commission from one of the CU’s artists. The commission can be of Candy Universe characters or the folder’s own characters, but unfortunately we can’t draw any copyrighted characters. It includes up to 3 characters in color with a simple background. Additional characters can be paid for through PayPal or for an additional 500 Million points each.
How to get started
Folding proteins is not hard; your PC does the work! To start, you’ll need to download the Folding @ home client.
Installation is straight forward. Once installed your default web browser will automatically open a web page which will say “Welcome to Folding@home. Please read this.” There will be an option to set up an Identity. Your Identity is required to verify your earned points, and without it you will be unable to receive Candy Universe rewards.
You can set anything you want for the name; names are public on the Candy Universe folding team webpage, please pick something professional.
The Team Number is 268520. This is required for your folding to count towards the Candy Universe team; only points earned under our team will count towards rewards.
That’s it! You can change some settings if you wish, but the default settings will use your CPU and any GPUs you may have installed when your PC is running, but not in use. The Candy Universe recommends setting your folding client to run even when your PC is in use if you’re using a modern Windows system, as it can probably handle it confidently without slowdowns. You can always set it back to idle only if your system can’t keep up.
Remember that installing and setting up this program won’t do anything for COVID research without also allowing your PC to run while not in use! It can’t fold proteins when it’s powered off.
how to redeem rewards
You can check on your PC’s progress at any time by opening your Folding @ home client. If you’re reading this webpage on the same PC that’s folding you can just click here to see your progress. Otherwise navigate to your system tray, typically located at the bottom right by the clock on most Windows PCs, and click on the Folding @ home icon, then click “Web Control”. If you’re a less tech savvy fan or if you can’t find the icon then please open this same Candy Universe page about folding (that you’re reading right now) on the PC that’s folding, and click here.
Once you’ve opened your web portal you should see your name, team 268520, and the number of points you’ve earned so far. It will look like this:
Take a screenshot of that info and send it to Sugar to redeem your rewards. If you are already in our Discord server you can DM Sugar from there. If not, you can also contact Sugar on Twitter. From there you’ll talk 1 on 1 with Sugar about your amazing achievement and delivery of your rewards!
Please note, if you have already been folding for another team only the points you’ve earned for team 268520 (Candy Universe) will count towards your rewards. You can see how many of your points are for 268520 on the web portal directly under your overall total.
Frequently asked questions
WILL FOLDING @ HOME RUN ON MY PC? Probably. The best way to find out is to download it and try! You can read the minimum requirements for Windows PCs here. The more powerful and modern your PC is, the more efficiently it can earn points. However, even an old PC can probably still fold proteins.
MY PC IS OLD, OR CRAPPY. SHOULD I STILL TRY? Yes! “My PC is too old or cheap to help” is a bad way to think. Imagine how many other people think that, and how much more power the network would have if they joined too! As long as your PC can run the program and you’re earning points it’s worth while to do it!
DOES LEAVING MY PC RUNNING DAMAGE IT? Not really, no. Even when you set your Folding Client to “Full” power it still won’t use your PC to the fullest possible extent. This program is meant to be left running 24/7 when you’re not using your PC, it wouldn’t work very well if it was damaging the PCs running it.
WILL FOLDING USE A LOT OF ELECTRICITY? Your PC will use more electricity when folding, no matter how new or old it is. With a typical PC the electricity use will not be enough to notice. However, a more powerful gaming PC might. As a rule of thumb you can expect most PCs to use less than $7 in electricity to reach the 1 Million points goal. If you’re dedicated enough to keep going past that, you might want to keep a closer eye on your power bill… though it’s not likely to increase too much. Folding isn’t quite as intensive as, say, mining for Bitcoin. Of course every utility charges different rates and every PC uses a different amount of electricity to do the same work so the best way to find out is to try folding!
DO I HAVE TO PICK COVID-19 AS MY PREFERED CAUSE TO GET CANDY UNIVERSE REWARDS? Nope! We launched this promotion to encourage more folding for COVID-19 but all the causes are in need of help, and the CU can’t tell what your points were folded for anyway.
IS STANFORD UNIVERSITY PAYING THE CANDY UNIVERSE TO PROMOTE FOLDING @ HOME? Absolutely not. The Candy Universe is promoting this program out of goodwill. The special poster prize was drawn by a CU artist and paid for by the CU. The CU also pays for printing and shipping the physical version of the poster, and the CU pays the artist for the commission on the biggest reward level. This promotion is entirely funded by, and run by, the Candy Universe with no ties to Stanford University or any of the big companies paying for the server side of the program. Trust me, if a big company started funding the CU you would notice. Sugar would have a lot more free time to work on the Candy Universe!
CAN I RUN MORE THAN ONE PC TO EARN POINTS FASTER? Yeah, you can! Just keep in mind every PC you run will consume more electricity. You may quickly reach a point where spinning up more old PCs isn’t worth the points they earn, especially if they’re older than your current PC. But yes, if you have the space and the amps in your circuits, sure you can!
CAN I SEE THE CANDY UNIVERSE TEAM LEADERBOARD? Sure! Just click here.
