i would like to set up a mosternode too. i almost started. but then i read that you need 1000 dash. we do you need 1000 dash to have a masternode? can somebody explain this to me in plain english. thank you.
The real reason there is a 1000 coin requirement is to protect against attack. Nobody can set up, say 10,000 Masternodes and either 1. spy on a majority of private send mixing transactions, or 2. mess with quorums which put locks on instant transactions.
Calculating the chances of successfully spying on private send mixing, you would need far more than 50% of masternodes to hope to follow anything, especially at 8 rounds. I don't believe any one entity has more than 400 masternodes, but I can't prove anything. Even they can't follow 4-8 rounds of mixing (probably have no chance of following 2 rounds).
So to buy enough Dash to overwhelm the existing Masternode holders, or even to get a majority of them to sell, which you would need to do, you would drive up the price very quickly to the point where even a government couldn't afford it.
The final thing Masternodes are responsible for is voting on decisions. The Dash project believes that anyone with such an investment, or "skin in the game" will make the wisest decisions. Their decisions will likely benefit the project, because good decisions improve the project and, of course, will increase the value of their investment.
Remember, the whole community, MN owner or no, always have full access to all discussions where they can and SHOULD voice their opinions on all matters being voted on. You can think of MNs as your Representatives and they are likely to read your thoughts and be swayed when your point is a good one. Thus there is representation for everyone.There is a chart somewhere that shows the % of Masternodes you would need to control to get a % chance at deanonymizing a private send. It's a bit old, it stops at 4000 masternodes, LOL, which we now have 4200+ but still, it shows how fruitless it is to try, and it would be a waste of money and resources for any large nefarious group to try.
And that is why Masternodes are collateralized.
RE: a dynamic IP address, yes, you can run a masternode on a dynamic IP address. I have a dynamic IP address at home, and it hasn't changed in years. However, if the IP address changes, your Masternode will drop off the Masternode list and you will lose your place in line for payment.
Another thing to think about is that Masternodes will now be required to store a lot more information, which means band width and storage are becoming more important. If your Masternode can't keep up, you could also fall off the list again. If you have a thunderstorm and a black out, you fall off the list again - each time you fall off the list, you can lose up to 8+ days of earnings (we get paid between 6.5 and 10 days) and if it happens after a long time running, it'd be very frustrating. That's why investing in a server somewhere is well worth it (they have backup power, high online %, and if you only drop off an hour, you're likely to be ok) Remember wherever you have your Masternode, to have a cron job to turn it back on if the server restarts for any reason
Finally, to practice running a Masternode, come to the testnet thread on the dash forums
https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/12-1-testnet-testing-phase-two-ignition.10818/ download the testnet wallet, follow the instructions, ask questions, and get one running that doesn't risk anything (yes, do it on your dynamic IP address!!!) Linux is easiest to run one, so if I were serious about actually doing a MN, I'd rent a server even for testing. There is nothing here you can't learn.
