I advice you to try the GRCpool since you are most likely using Katiees Pool. Unfortunately katiee hasn't been around for a long time and her pool is still online making sporadic payouts.

I think Gridcoin has a great advantage towards other networks since it's based on a use-and-we-pay method. Golem will be a pay-for-usage model. We also have a long developed open-source program with BOINC being 15 years this year.

I can't see why Gridcoin couldn't be a good competitor. Just because Gridcoin wasn't founded on a large scale ICO with bells, whistles and unicorns doesn't mean its any less of a big player.