This post is going to be part guide / part shill, so save the comments telling me I'm just shilling
Many people who have recently entered the crypto world have most likely heard of making money through mining, but not as many people would have heard of Masternodes. Masternodes allow for anyone with enough coins to run a node and collect daily payouts without having to buy and run expensive mining gear.
What Is a Masternode Exactly?
Put very simply, a masternode is a node that is constantly running (best to use a VPS) which verifies transactions on the blockchain.
When running a masternode, your coins are "locked" and you cannot spend any of the masternode coins - you will only be able to spend the daily coins that are sent to you. If you ever want to stop the masternode and sell your original coins, you can unlock them at any time - but you will no longer receive payouts.
The benefits of having masternodes are:
Instant transactions
Increased anonymity of transactions
Ability for masternode owners to vote in decisions of the coin/project
Less coins in circulation (due to being locked up), this increases the price due to scarcity and thus increases your payouts
For a more technical explanation, visit:
https://themerkle.com/what-is-a-masternode/How To Set One Up?
There are dozens of coins that have masternodes these days, I normally choose mine after sorting through and researching the different coins on
https://masternodes.online/For this guide, I've chosen to use ALQO - it is by far the easiest masternode I have ever set up and is a great option for masternode noobies to get their feet wet.
Head to the exchange and buy your coins. An ALQO masternode requires 10000 coins to run a node and are currently available on the decentralized exchange Crypto Bridge -
https://crypto-bridge.org/Download the correct wallet for your operating system:
https://alqo.org/walletSend your coins to the wallet
Purchase your VPS hosting, you can use something like Vultr but the official hosting of ALQO is just as cheap for $5 a month and they even help you set it up.
https://hosting.alqo.orgOnce you have received their email, telling you your hosting is ready, watch this video:
Back up and encrypt your wallet and you're all set!
You can then close down your wallet and PC and after waiting about 48 hours, you will get your first payout. Payouts will then become daily, which you can either keep in your wallet or send to an exchange for bitcoin right away. It is completely safe to run your masternode on a VPS if set up like this, as your coins/private key never ends up anywhere other than on your computer and in your wallet.
The current payouts as of writing the post are:
Daily: $66
Weekly: $467
Monthly: $2,003
Yearly: $24,377
Full stats can be found here:
https://masternodes.online/currencies/ALQO/So Why Did I Choose ALQO?
ALQO has a small but dedicated team of developers that have achieved a great deal in just a couple of months. Their masternode service has broken down the barriers for many people to set up and run a masternode - they have the highest percentage of coins locked up in masternodes than ANY OTHER COIN.
The marketcap is still tiny in crypto terms at only ~$35,000,000 - so there is so much room for growth. Lower marketcap = can be more risky, but the upside potential can be huge when you see coins going from $10,000,000 to $1bil + in a couple of months. I'm not saying this is going to happen, but the potential is there and it's easier for a small cap coin to do that type of growth. I have made most of my money investing in QUALITY small cap coins, then watching them explode x10 - x50.
Today, they have just released news that they will be opening their own exchange and using ALQO coins as the fees, much like Binance does with their Binance Coin (BNB). The exchange is going to be targeted towards Germany/Europe (where the developers are based), and allow FIAT entry - this is a huge because it cuts out having to use exchanges like Coinbase to load dollars/euros in. The exchange is expected to open in Q3 of this year.
They have also announced that they will be implementing Atomic Swaps this quarter. Atomic Swaps allow 2 people to send 2 different coins to each other (providing the coin allows Atomic Swaps), without using an exchange or escrow service. For example, if I want to buy some ALQO for BTC off of someone, I can send my BTC to him, knowing that if he doesn't send the ALQO I can then revoke my BTC. This is huge for crypto and allows for even further decentralisation by cutting out exchanges for quick trades.
I really expect that once this coin hits a bigger exchange it will take off and the cost of a masternode will be above 6 BTC (over $100k). I got mine for 0.8BTC and the price has risen 0.5BTC since. It's staying reasonably priced because it's still on a smaller exchange, but will be added to more soon.
If anyone has any questions about setting up their masternode, I'm happy to answer.
