If you know anything about SmartCash, you know about the SmartRewards, which give you a percentage of the block reward each month if you hold at least 1,000 smart in one account and make no outgoing transactions. You're probably also aware of the fact that 70% of the block reward is allocated for smarthive proposals, a staggering amount of future coin to help grow the project and potentially give back to the community in charitable ways.
An additional 10% of the block reward is reserved for SmartNode operators, who maintain a copy of the entire blockchain on a private server and serve as a way for instant pay transactions to occur. With the recent wallet update, instant pay transactions can now take place.
I was able to buy enough Smart to start operating a SmartNode back in January, and while the payouts have been slightly sporadic, I am mostly happy with my returns. Even better, the recent wallet update has made payouts more frequent and consistent, though the amount of Smart per payout has been reduced to account for this increase in frequency.
In order to operate a SmartNode, one must have 10,000 Smart and a VPS, and follow a fairly straight-forward process in order to get their node online. As someone with a very limited skill-set with regards to programming and coding, I was able to follow the guide online with relative ease.
Since getting my node online, I have received a few thousand Smart in the form of node payouts, a nice form of passive income. Combined with the monthly SmartReward payout, my Smart Balance has continued to grow with each passing month.
However, something to be aware of is the fact that the SmartRewards percentage decreases with each passing month, as more addresses qualify for the payout. My first SmartRewards payout was 6.47%, whereas this upcoming payout will only be about 1.85%.
Recent node payouts have occurred approximately every 2 days, and are currently about 25 Smart per payout. This amount slowly decreases over time, so let's assume an average payout for the next month of 24 Smart. If this current payout frequency remains, we can expect to receive approximately 360 Smart over the next 30 days.
The SmartRewards payout for the next period will inevitably be lower than 1.85%, meaning my SmartRewards will probably be less than the amount I would receive for running a second SmartNode. Though I will probably have to pay an additional $5 a month for a second VPS (unless I can figure out a way to run it off the same server), I'm seriously considering forfeiting my SmartReward for August in favor of a second SmartNode. It's unfortunate to lose the SmartRewards, but in the long run I think it's the best move.
Of course, I could just buy another 10,000 Smart for around $900 and not lose anything, but that's not really in the cards for me right now...Either way, it's nice to have the ability to start a second Masternode because of the accumulation of node/rewards payouts. A major reason why I dig this project :)
