absolutely the top one. and I would specifically not choose anything that says "BOINC" for the following reasons. First, because even though gridcoin supports boinc, we are not one in the same. Seems that could offend both the folks at Berkeley, as well as long-time BOINC'ers who have their own teams they are loyal to. Second, although BOINC is the primary project we support, I would like to imagine a future where BOINC is one of many such projects that get eventually wrapped up under Gridcoin. I would want us to be the science research coin, that rewards for all sorts of projects (e.g. folding@home, etc.) . That's obviously in the far future, but I would want us to support all science, not just a particular project. (although, things could go another way, if BOINC decided to do the integrations with other projects, and then we wouldn't have to.)
TL;DR . option 1 :)
I agree! We talked a little about this potential conflict as we were putting together the designs. We rationalized using the BOINC logo as we are attempting to take a snapshot of Gridcoin at this moment in time -- the 1 millionth block! And we are going to be focusing on BOINC for the foreseeable future. They are a part of us in this moment. We are a part of them. ... ;)?
Right now, there is some contention between Gridcoin and BOINC community members, teams, projects, etc. As I understand it, this stems largely from the Gridcoin team requirement -- it forces people to choose between meeting a need (paying their electric bill) and working with who they want to work with. That is an unfair choice to ask someone in any situation, particularly because there is usually a solution. In this case, that solution is Gridcoin Team Neutral.
On the other hand, there are many BOINCers who are heavily committed to the success of Gridcoin as a project, so while the contention is often seen, the unity might actually be stronger than we think. At the same time, the potential conflict is a real risk with a BOINC design. I feel the development process and intent behind the designs mitigates this risk. At the same time, we did not openly reach out to the BOINC community for their input. At the same time, BOINCers from before Gridcoin even existed helped in the development of the coin! There's a lot to consider, but in the end we have to decide if the product is worth the risk .
That, and which one we think looks better =).