I know BitShares is a proof-of-stake coin but since it uses a variant of PoS called DPoS, does that mean that only delegates are able to receive staking rewards? I'm only asking because I have 1,000 BTS on Poloniex and I've already downloaded the client so I'm ready to withdraw my coins and was wondering if I could/should leave the wallet staking overnight along with my other PoS coins.
Yes, only delegate can "stake", but "staking" of BitShares much different from other POS coins. More information about this you can get in BitShares forum:
https://bitsharestalk.org/Secondly, I know that BitAssets such as BitUSD pay interest. Does the wallet need to be unlocked and kept running for this to happen?
No, you don't need to run the wallet at all, if you have BitUSD (or another BitAssets) you will get yeld when next time you move BitAsset, just to get your yeld you can send BitAsset to your self every week/month, current yeld (APR) of BitAsset you can see here:
http://bitsharesblocks.com/assets/marketAnd finally, where is the main [ANN] thread for this coin? I did a search on Google for 'bitshares bitcointalk' but I can't seem to find it anywhere.
BitShares doesn't have dedicated ANN thread at bitcointalk.org, but BitShares history was started from ProtoShares which has ANN thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=325261.0Whole history you can read here:
The Origin of BitShareshttps://bitsharestalk.org/index.php?topic=14019.0Ah, OK thanks for the answers. So is the yield shown on that page referring to annual yield? So 2% for BitUSD for example means 2% per year?
Strange to see a major coin like BTS not have an official thread though. I've always been interested in the coin but I never really bought any coins until quite recently since the coin's design and distribution method was so complex compared to other coins. I did some more reading about it and how it works and I think I understand it better now.
Its not 'staking' so much as 'mining'. The difference being that it is fixed in advance who is going to mine and collect the block reward, and the resources required is negligible compared to actual mining.
That sounds similar to NXT's transparent forging.