I remember years ago there were SETI cheaters who got credit for uploading the same work unit. That was one of many possibilities for cheating.

It appears Collatz has a problem and they are offline until it is fixed. I thought BOINC provided a framework for data to upload / download to prevent fake work units. Maybe that was just a guideline and the project had to implement the mechanism? If so, then Collatz has been hit really bad due to a few gridcoin hacker / cheaters.

I had a look at the Collatz site and message boards yesterday, and could spot one very obvious cheat which I won't discuss here. BOINC HQ staff are aware of the problem and are on standby to help out if needed. BOINC provides the tools, but it's up to projects to implement and use them. Slicker thought it would be difficult to use the main one, in light of the nature of his project - it exists, after all, simply to prove or disprove a mathematical conjecture, and a single counter-example would be enough to disprove it. There are only so many ways you can compare "nope, this isn't a counter-example" with "nope, this isn't a counter-example".