Masternodes and Funding Development

So recently as bitcoin scaling troubles have forced many people into alternative currencies, I too have been looking at other options. This is when I really discovered masternodes and not only how profitable, but fun they can be. I know what you are thinking “Fun?” but I have found that running one has actually made me feel like part of a community, something that before Steemit, I lost with the bitcoin community.

Essentially masternodes are a system where you pull x amount of coins off the market , which will create a masternode, which acts similar like a regular node in any coin by relaying transactions. Although masternodes are paid a percentage of the block reward for doing so. Much like mining if there are 10 nodes, you have a 1/10 chance from every block to be rewarded with a percentage of the block reward. In some systems these masternodes also are given the ability to vote on certain topics by signaling which direction they choose.

The most known masternode project is dash, but unfortunately unless you got a masternode early, it is tens of thousands of dollars to run one now. With the success of dash some projects like Pivx, Crowns, ect have all been implementing masternode systems, but they too can be thousands of dollars which is a bit off putting to new people. I decided to try out transfercoin’s masternode system which still cost a little over a bitcoin, but I wanted to try out how they work. I booted up an old laptop that I would make a dedicated node and setup my masternode.

Instantly I found myself checking every hour or so to see if my node had found anything and found excitement every time it did. It is like being paid dividends every few hours which is really cool. I soon realized the potential that masternodes could have in a system for development and voting. I wish I was able to afford a dash masternode because the developers and voting system they have seems to be really interesting.

There is a potential of being able to fund bounties directly through the community in a way that is decentralized. Mike Hearn a few years ago, before leaving the crypto space, released a prototype system called lighthouse, which was interesting, but lacked a userbase. Having a a crowdfunding option like that built into the interface is really interesting step forward. Now in crypto, we rely on devs to work for no pay and have to be supported by companies and organization, which unfortunately leads to centralization, but maybe in the future we wouldn’t have to.

I talked to the main developer on the transfercoin project about possibly adding an interface similar, where nodes might be able to offer a part of their reward to an address, that way certain devs can keep working full time. Similar to something like Patreon, which is a service that supports youtube content creators. Maybe I the future a system like that will be implemented, but right now I am having fun again in the crypto space, by actually having a vote, much like on Steemit. I think masternodes are the future and hope more coins implement them going forward.