[TheUltraFish]

In English terms, you would be allowing a group of people that you do not know access to your computer power. They do not do as much as Russ says here, they are mainly looking for prime numbers. This is not to say that they do other things that are not good in the sciences or math world but they would mainly be looking for prime numbers. In which they already have thousands of computers doing this very thing.

Why prime numbers? There is a cash reward for anyone that can find a proven prime number that has not yet been recorded. However, if you use their program, they get the money even though your computer, therefore time and power as well, to fund their research in most cases. This is especially true depending on which group you allow to use your computer to find a prime number. Yes, there are more than one.

I heard about this more than once in college and even though it would not slow down your computer by much if noticeably at all, I do not suggest you do this unless you have a pretty nice setup. Most cases you would not notice this program running but if you have a crap computer, for sure do not do it. There is nothing to be gained by doing this on your part.

However, I want to make it clear that this is NOT a scam. I have not heard of any case of anybody's stuff breaking or having their personal information taken. It would just be another thing running in the background of your computer that you would soon forget about.