iNodez is a platform for pooling coins so that many users can easily and anonymously collaborate to create full masternodes and share in the rewards earned. We started out with a few users on a single RTM (Raptoreum) masternode on May 5, 2021 and have since grown to over 11,000 active users. FIRO was recommended by BigPiggy (a core RTM dev) as a viable option for us to expand into offering shared masternodes for other projects that we might help support while growing ourselves as well.
iNodez is custodial - so please be aware of the risks of depositing your coins. We make every effort to keep the platform secure. The app and website are just a display that reads off the chain, so at no point does it ever ātalkā directly to the wallets where rewards and collateral are stored. That being said, we strongly encourage all users to be aware of the risks of a custodial setup and are always open to answering any questions.
We do not charge a fee for deposits or withdrawals, nor do we charge a monthly fee. We take a share of the rewards earned to cover hosting and labor costs for the platform. You can input a withdrawal request into the app at any time. We perform withdrawals for both RTM and FIRO on or around the last day of the month requested and I always announce the expected date/time as the end of month draws near.
One of the benefits to our setup is that users can expect rewards to be distributed twice a week (Thurs at 4:00 UTC and Sundays at 16:00 UTC). We have setup the FIRO portion of our platform as a shared masternode pool, so all users will receive a proportion of any rewards earned by the pool of nodes twice a week. Your share is always equal to your proportion of staked collateral versus the total collateral that is currently in all FIRO nodes (minus our 6% rewards fee). You never pay us directly and all fees come from the rewards directly from the network.
Very nice. I like that youāve just straight up explained the custodial nature of iNodez. I may park my MN earnings over at your place until I can afford a second one. Cool stuff!
That kind of surprises me, because I would have thought someone as knowledgeable as Iām pretty sure you are about crypto would entrust someone else with your coins in order to earn a return on your RTM. Granted, I understand that the requirement to run an RTM masternode is like 1 million RTM, so itās not practical for most peopleā¦but donāt you get just a little bit paranoid knowing youāre not in control of your keys & coins?
Iāve seen some Youtubers who specialize in CPU mining content more or less endorsing iNodez, and frankly I hate to see that unless the obvious risks are spelled out for the viewer (and IIRC in the vids Iāve seen, they havenāt been, though I could be wrong). Even so, I donāt think anybody who knows the basics of keeping your crypto safe ought to be recommending any service that has control over your private keys for an extended period of time. Keeping coins on an exchange for longer than you have to is a gamble, and the odds of a catastrophe skyrocket if weāre talking about something like iNodez.
Should I ever get to the point of jumping on the Firo MN busāand Iām strongly considering itāit isnāt going to be with a custodial service. I wish you the best, iNodez, and hope you donāt go down in crypto history with the rest of the exchanges, casinos, and other services that got hacked or in some way or another cost people their entire investment. Nothing personal.
I know you were replying to Reuben here but I think what you said is fair, so I wanted to speak up as well.
Iāve never shied away or tried to hide from the risks involved. Shortly after RTM launched mainnet, I recognized that there were many people in the community that wanted to earn node rewards but could not fully fund the required investment or simply did not want to learn the required skills involved. iNodez was started originally to support the RTM node layer and community - it was never intended to grow as big as it has from the start but here we are.
I just want to be 100% clear - I have never asked for or paid for any endorsements by random YouTubers. They chose to cover iNodez on their own after learning about RTM. In fact, after seeing some of the other content they put out encouraging people to mine (what I believe to be) downright scam coins, I kind of wish they hadnāt covered iNodez at all. They wonāt remove the content though because they are only in it for the likes and views that they get from the engaged community. I completely agree with you on this point, which is why my first post here mentions the custodial nature and that it contains risks in my second paragraph up above.
I would never tell someone to put all their entire holdings in iNodez and I believe the same rule applies to exchanges - you should only keep what you can afford to lose there in case of serious problems. It was supposed to be a community support platform and my intention was always to keep it that way. When we get to the point that smart contracts are available, I am looking for additional ways to make it safer and more autonomous (but of course that opens up another can of worms in terms of code vulnerability).
I also host full nodes where users do hold the collateral and keys in their local wallet and simply designate me to operate the nodes for an operator fee - and this is actually my preferred method of hosting, but again - not everyone can afford the 1.8 million RTM or even the full 1000 FIRO required. I donāt take this personally at all and I have always assisted anyone with learning how to setup their own nodes as well. Many people (myself included) run full nodes privately and simply use iNodez to grow the rewards towards the next full node faster.
Our collateral wallets never talk directly to the iNodez site/app - it reads information from the chain using separate wallets entirely. We perform all transactions using the public ledger so that they can be verified publicly. I have never shared access to the collateral wallet it and Iāve worked hard to develop trust with the RTM community since testnet 2019. We use many various security measures like dedicated machines for the collateral wallets with physical and software security measures. That being said, weāve all seen the hacks and scams in the crypto space and as I state in the FAQ and disclaimer I cannot guarantee with 100% certainty that someone wonāt somehow compromise the wallets. Iāve been in the crypto space since 2017 as well and everything you are concerned with is totally valid.
Using a shared node platform which requires a custodial setup because the coins for a node must be in a single address is not for everyone and it is certainly not meant to hold someoneās entire savings by any means. Please do not put yourself at risk in that way - I would never encourage that!
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Well itās all about risk management. The amount of RTM I got was from a gift as a thank you for helping on some things (who in return also helped us get hooked up with INodez). If you have enough for a masternode, I of course recommend self custody of coins but if you have some FIRO laying around that you wonāt feel too bad about losing, you can consider shared masternode services which are basically a āplace and forgetā.
I think @iNodez has been pretty clear about the custodial risks.
Also remember, for some people, self custody is more dangerous if theyāre not tech savvy. Many people have lost their masternodes due to scam ātech supportā that asked them to type in some commands that dumped their private key to a file which they handed over as ālogsā.
I would disagree with the first part there in a general sense, though Iām not sure what my opinion is if youāre just talking about masternodes, as Iāve never run one. As I said in my last post, Iām not tech-savvyāat allābut with respect to security of your coins you really donāt need to be. The only thing Johnny Lunchbox Witā Some Crypto needs to internalize is that mantra ānot your keys, not your coinsā. As long as thereās some common sense and a whopping dose of skepticism present as well, we ignorami of tech should be OK.
No offense to iNodez intended, and I hope years down the road you all are still in business and are helping people run masternodes. My problem really isnāt with your service, because itās a useful one and you have indeed been forthright about the custodial risks. Iāve just got a gripe with crypto Youtubers in general, and when they just casually mention a service like iNodez as if youāre not taking a massive risk by giving away control of your coins by using it, that just makes my blood boilāand it already runs hot. All of us here might understand the risk, and if weāre all consenting adults I say go for it. But I donāt think Iād be way off base by saying there are a lot of newcomers to crypto who listen to the popular Youtubers talk about mining, staking, you name it, as if they were listening to seasoned experts with the viewersā best interests at heart.
That might be true for maybe 5% of crypto Youtubers, but Iāve seen a lot of advice being given that makes me shudderāand also gives me the distinct impression that some of them care way more about their YT revenue than they do about what they earn from crypto or even about cryptocurrency in general.
But my gripes and such about Youtube shills is off-topic, so we wonāt go there any further.
How long, if you donāt mind my asking? I guess it couldnāt be much longer than a year, since theyāve only been in operation for about 53 weeks if I read iNodezās post correctly.
Thatās definitely a good start as far as time spent establishing trust, and I give them credit for that too.
When I had too little Firo I kept them on Tdax exchange (got renamed to Satang I think) and although it had risk as ānot your keys not you coinsā I was happy I could be part of masternode network.
So although masternodes I have are now under my wallet I understand that for some users such services are currently only way how they can be part of the masternode network.
In original post here iNodes included warning about risks. It was nice and everybody can decide if he wants to take the risk. Nobody is forced to use such service if he doesnāt like the risk.
