Staking Lab - Staking Pools and Shared Masternodes

I recently came across a neat service called Staking Lab, and I thought I'd share it. (Yes I'm giving you a ref link, but it really is a neat thing.) It's a website similar to Stake United, which allows users to stake together in a larger pool. This staking service has two primary advantages:

1. You don't have to actually stake on a computer. Staking is considerably easier than mining, but you still need to have a computer that can run 24/7, and you need to be able to understand how desktop wallets work. And if you are staking a whole bunch of different coins, your RAM can get used up real quick with all the different wallets running at once.

2. You can get rewards more frequently if you have a smaller amount of coins. This has a compounding effect and also lets you cash out or trade those rewards more frequently as well.

So, stake united has been around for a while. I've actually never used it, but it's supposed to be good. And Staking Labs has a similar staking service, with a similar choice of coins.

But I was initially interested in Staking Lab for a specific reason: Shared Masternodes.

Masternodes are pretty cool - you lock up a certain amount of coins, usually a lot, and you get daily rewards. It's like staking, but often the rewards are a bit better. They are, however, pretty difficult for the average person to set up. You have to get a VPS, which often costs money, and you have to be familiar enough with Linux to set up and configure the node. They are also oftentimes quite expensive (in the thousands or tens of thousands).

So to have a service where you can contribute a moderate amount to a masternode, and have someone else run it for you - that's pretty cool.

As far as I know, Staking Lab is the only place where you can contribute to many different masternodes.

Here are the Masternodes they have now:

• Alqo
• BitCoin Green
• Arion
• Cheese
• Force
• Motile Coin
• Phore
• SmartCash
• Solaris
• Tokugawa

Some really interesting projects there. I contributed to a bitcoin green MN (possibly a mistake given its recent price crash), and I plan to contribute to Phore and Alqo MNs soon, and perhaps SmartCash as well. I'm staking Force in my own wallet and I have to calculate whether it's worth it to switch to Staking Labs because the MN rewards are higher.

I will say a few things to keep in mind.

It's a new service and the site is still being developed. It is works well, but it's a work in progress, but the instructions are often unclear - I think the people running it are from Germany, so English is not their first language.

Also, I can't vouch for safety. It's a calculated risk you have to think about, much as leaving your coins on an exchange is a risk. And they charge fees, but they are pretty reasonable.

That having been said, they are extremely responsive and helpful on Discord. I originally found out about it from the great CryptoMocho of twitter, who likes it and sometimes pops up and chats in Discord. The devs are making good changes very quickly as well.

Take a look. DYOR of course. If you do sign up, use my ref link - right over here!