Shared masternodes and escrow

[pbleak]

Hey all,

I have been pondering, as is my cryptographic tendency, about rogue actors who, in the future, may offer shared masternode services and then run off with the funds. I do not consider this an issue at the moment since the service is now being offered by solid people (DRKheads, let us say). But it will not always be thus. From experience I know that in the crypto world scammers will always find a way to make a buck. We've all seen it on Bitcointalk and the likes. Usually they are easy to spot: relatively new, trying to get things down fast, and they sometimes come with a few accounts. Most of us will see it and avoid, but I fear that newcomers might fall for it. If, in an imagined scenario, a major shared masternode operator ran off with the funds of lots of newbies we would lose a lot of adopters. The trust would be shattered and they would feel burned. To this end I feel we should aim to stress the importance of some kind of escrow service. So far I have seen many of the decent sorts openly state they would be happy to do so, but may we could aim to make the process easier?

And yes this is the kind of thing I think about on a Friday when I should be getting ready to go out!

 

[tungfa]

I totally agree and well said bleak !
we as a community should all keep an "eye" on these services to make sure it all works as it is supposed to !!

 

[Miner237]

I agree we want more masternodes to strengthen the network but I don't think newbies are going to start with 1k dark and immediately want to put it in a masternode. Now there may be capital investors that are looking to buy and hold. But even with an escrow service that may have some trust at initial opening and stay open for years could fall to attack or greed of the admin. Look at mintpal and moolah suddenly there is a problem and all your coin is locked up with the service.

 

[thelonecrouton]

If someone has 1000DRK to invest it's not an issue, they can just run a masternode genkey in their wallet and pass that to their admin, like flare's service. Their coins are never at risk.

With smaller investors clubbing together to make up the 1000DRK yeah it can get messier. The shared MNs I run (actually just one now) I provide everyone with ID, and ask the same from the investors. Still no guarantee that someone won't be an arsehole, but it's a good start, and really, for a few hundred DRK who needs the grief?