BTW: what about the boinc points that have been credited to the users last time? Are they lost and people will get the coins only for the last day or the wallets will recognise that one's points have never been changed to coins?
Alicea you have a lot of questions that can probably be answered by reading the wiki:
Documentation is a weakness that we are addressing, currently the wiki is the most up to date and complete single source about everything Gridcoin, both the Classic wallet in retirement and the new Research wallet. A white paper is being worked on and the website will be updated soon.