I’ve always been pretty skeptical of any staking-based systems, including firo’s masternode system, especially now that 50% of block reward is going towards masternodes. Yes, it will probably encourage people to buy in the short term, but I think the problem is that all cryptocurrencies that predominantly have staking (or some other reward system that encourages HODLing over spending) will eventually succumb to ponzi-like failure unless they can continue to provide utility in some other area that non-HODLers are willing to pay a premium for.
Look at the recent collapse of shitcoins like UST/LUNA, CRO, etc. that have all used the staking mechanism to entice buyers with high returns. I’ve even heard of a shitcoin called “safemoon” that-get this- has a huge artificial fee on all transactions that gets distributed to hodlers. WTF?
I think it also depends on the emission curve. I’ve been looking into other “privacy coins”, and it’s shocking how many of them (like “Pirate Coin” or Dash) have pretty sus emission schedules that heavily favor miners with inside knowledge. Even CryptoNote/Bytecoin/BitMonero/Monero have had their fare share of controversy over premines, which took a while to resolve. Pirate Coin has a very sus implementation of a PoS/PoW hybrid they call “dPoW”.
I’ve also heard that proof-of-stake is more generally susceptible to long-range attacks “e.g. Nothing at Stake”. How does Firo mitigate or negate this with the Masternode system?
That all being said, a system that compliments PoW with PoS could still be useful in giving crypto owners more leverage against hardware owners and securing against hashrate attacks. Even a CPU-based PoW like I mentioned in another thread could be vulnerable to co-ordinated attacks from larger cryptocurrencies that use CPU mining, like monero miners.
Another option could be an opt-in classical consensus mechanism, but I doubt that would be very popular!
Anyways, if the crypto market continues the way it’s going, I might actually pick up a couple thousand Firo for cheap this week and set up a masternode myself. My computer’s not really cut out for mining anyways.
The balance between PoW vs PoS is a pretty hot topic around here
Imo, this block reward shift is the begininng of finding that right balance for Firo. I’d say it’s too strong of a swing towards rewarding MNs, but that’s in line with how pendulums work
Unfortunately miners seemed relatively absent from the discussion and voting this go-around
Not for a lack of trying. They were the group we tried to reach out to the most and I appeared in several mining focused Youtube channels. I really wanted to see a shift of hashrate away from 2miners at the very least as a vote of confidence of their role in Firo’s ecosystem but it barely shifted :(.
That’s what I am hoping for as well. I think it really may very well be some bigger farms that are doing it, and once it is no longer “profitable” for them they will bail and leave miners that have been good to Firo, and that with the new equilibrium it will still be profitable for them while finally solving our hashrate imbalance. In fact, with how things are going across the whole crypto space I am hoping this all goes back to the roots of crypto rather than being entirely focused on the profits.
I’m a miner and I mine on mintpond. It’s sad to see so many Firo miners all mining on the same pool. I also wouldn’t mind shifting pool if mintpond was to become the new 2miners.
I believe the MN system creates a perfect balance between Hodling and spending. The reason being is that 1000 Firo is needed to set up a masternode, which means the holder of a firo MN will have to wait a long long time to acquire enough Firo via rewards to acquire another MN.
With my rewards I both Hodl and spend when I need too. The coin itself works great for payments and is very much peer to peer electronic cash.
The fact the coin can already be used as an electronic cash system is a great positive in my book which will do well in the years to come as long as people are aware of the project which hopefully the community fund will help progress!
