I am the proud owner of a masternode and received my first few payments. I'm obviously very happy about that, but I now find myself with lots of questions about the practicalities of owning and operating my masternode, yet can't seem to find any resources either here or elsewhere that answers many of my questions. It would be great if there could be a masternode operator's FAQs section which is maintained somewhere on the site. Here are some of my questions (or at least questions I can imagine others asking), but I'm sure others have suggestions or questions on their minds that should be added. I think I know the answer to many of these questions, but it would be good to hear from a definitive source. If an FAQ like this already exists, my apologies.
Some of these questions might seem obvious to those involved in the development efforts, but you'd be surprised how difficult it is to get good clean answers to some of these basic questions. There are a lot of aspects to owning a node that I'm finding to be quite difficult to understand, especially around the handling of funds / profits. Is there someone from the dev team that could answer some of these questions definitively? Thank you for all the great work!
Great, everything is set up, secure, I have monitoring set up, and I received my first few payments. Now what? Can I remove any of the funds from my cold wallet without deactivating my masternode? e.g., What happens if I have accumulated 1,012 DRK and I attempt to send 12 DRK to an exchange or another wallet? Does the masternode stay operational? Do I need to use coin control to ensure I don't touch the original 1,000 DRK, or does it not matter which specific coins I transfer?
I am worried that if I initiate a transaction for the full amount of my profit that it will also trigger a transaction fee. If it does, won't the transaction fee be added to my withdrawal, thus lowering the balance to less than the 1,000 DRK I need to maintain the masternode? If this is the case, how can I determine the maximum amount to transfer - including anticipated transaction fees - that still keeps the masternode fully funded and operational? Are there any precautions I could take to prevent an accidental deactivation of my masternode?
What about immature coins that were recently mined? For example, if I have 1,012 DRK in "balance" and 1 DRK in "immature" (for a total of 1,013 DRK), can I withdraw 13 coins, or only 12 until the last coin matures?
Is there any way to have my masternode payments sent to a different address of my choice (e.g., directly to an exchange perhaps, or another wallet)?
I am curious about what percent of blocks are actually paying the masternodes. This is important in order to calculate expected payments. What is the best way to get this information? Is the trend positive (e.g., rising percentage as more pool operators convert) or negative (e.g., falling as more miners actively switch to pools that aren't paying)?
How often does the active masternode switch? Is it every block, or could I be the active masternode for a period of time?
How can I best stay notified of version updates to the daemon?
Some of these questions might seem obvious to those involved in the development efforts, but you'd be surprised how difficult it is to get good clean answers to some of these basic questions. There are a lot of aspects to owning a node that I'm finding to be quite difficult to understand, especially around the handling of funds / profits. Is there someone from the dev team that could answer some of these questions definitively? Thank you for all the great work!
Great, everything is set up, secure, I have monitoring set up, and I received my first few payments. Now what? Can I remove any of the funds from my cold wallet without deactivating my masternode? e.g., What happens if I have accumulated 1,012 DRK and I attempt to send 12 DRK to an exchange or another wallet? Does the masternode stay operational? Do I need to use coin control to ensure I don't touch the original 1,000 DRK, or does it not matter which specific coins I transfer?
I am worried that if I initiate a transaction for the full amount of my profit that it will also trigger a transaction fee. If it does, won't the transaction fee be added to my withdrawal, thus lowering the balance to less than the 1,000 DRK I need to maintain the masternode? If this is the case, how can I determine the maximum amount to transfer - including anticipated transaction fees - that still keeps the masternode fully funded and operational? Are there any precautions I could take to prevent an accidental deactivation of my masternode?
What about immature coins that were recently mined? For example, if I have 1,012 DRK in "balance" and 1 DRK in "immature" (for a total of 1,013 DRK), can I withdraw 13 coins, or only 12 until the last coin matures?
Is there any way to have my masternode payments sent to a different address of my choice (e.g., directly to an exchange perhaps, or another wallet)?
I am curious about what percent of blocks are actually paying the masternodes. This is important in order to calculate expected payments. What is the best way to get this information? Is the trend positive (e.g., rising percentage as more pool operators convert) or negative (e.g., falling as more miners actively switch to pools that aren't paying)?
How often does the active masternode switch? Is it every block, or could I be the active masternode for a period of time?
How can I best stay notified of version updates to the daemon?
