MasterNodes

[CryptoCrayze]

What exactly are they and how do they work?

Bonus marks:
Do you think they're good or bad?

[1715008972]

1715008972

[Danstan]

MasterNodes is only for monitoring and it only shows statistics of coins that are listed on them but not recommend or track any coin for you.

Bonus marks is when you buy token from ICO and exceeded minimum purchase then they gave you extra token.

(some point on your post is missing so I answered base only on what I can derived from it)

[figmentofmyass]

What exactly are they and how do they work?

they're full nodes with virtually constant uptime that carry out special tasks like coordinating coin mixing and voting on budget funding. they're generally required to have a certain amount of crypto collateral (eg 1000 DASH for a DASH masternode), a dedicated IP address, and have pretty constant uptime. in return, they get a regular cut of mining rewards.

whether they are good or bad..... they're bad because they add to centralization. if they mix coins, there is an element of trust regarding whether any given MN is compromised (by blockchain analytics companies, law enforcement, etc). the governance structure is good because it can resolve disputes, but it creates centralized decision makers. people like MNs because they create economic incentive to hoard coins (because of the required collateral). that causes price to increase, all else equal.

[shahzadafzal]

What exactly are they and how do they work?

In simply words masternode is a server on a decentralized network. It is utilized to complete unique functions in ways ordinary nodes can’t.
It's misconception that masternodes are an extension of Proof-of-Stake (PoS) coins (i.e. cryptos that aren’t mined, but are staked), but that’s not true.
There are Proof-of-Work (PoW) projects that make use of masternodes, so these kinds of nodes aren’t exclusive to PoS or PoW.

Do you think they're good or bad?

What is meaning of this? Do you mean in terms of owning a masternode and make some earnings?
Answer is not straight forward as it depends on which coin you select and how its gonna behave in long run..

[CryptoCrayze]

Ahh thanks @fig and @shah, those responses helped clear up a lot between the two of them.
Yeah the misconception was actually how it had been initially presented to me but I think I have a bit more of an idea.

Cheers!