First pass (it might look totally different by Tuesday):
Darkcoin Begins Paying Nodes From Block RewardsDarkcoins much anticipated payments system to Master Nodes went live last week with node operators finally receiving a share of Darkcoins from miners block rewards.
After the first hard fork attempt to implement payments to Master Nodes caused the Darkcoin network to fork into several chains, the developers were forced to temporarily
abandon the payments system.
The Master Nodes are part of Darkcoins privacy system which anonymises users through the Nodes by routing bundles of transactions from several people through them which renders the block chain incomprehensible to those trying to track spending patterns.
To prevent rouge Nodes being created which could overwhelm the network with bad actors, the Darkcoin developers have made it financially difficult to operate a Master Node.
To run a Master Node, each node requires a wallet with 1,000 DRK, around $9,500 at time of writing, to be available in order for the network to recognise that nodes are available for mixing.
This 1,000 DRK requirement has been called a Proof of Service feature by the Darkcoin community, as it is a way for nodes to prove they are available to serve the network. The high price to operate a Node makes it financially difficult for most people to operate rogue nodes.
In return for setting up a Master Node and making it available for service,
the network pays Nodes 20% of block rewards directly from the miners. It was this payment system which caused the recent Darkcoin fork.
The second attempt to implement the payment system was changed to a two-stage fork, which became known as a spork by the community. The network was updated, but pools and old wallets were not forced to update immediately.
The second stage of the network update due in the next few weeks will see an enforced ban from the network if pools do not update. This will prevent them from keeping payments to Master Nodes.
The use of Master Nodes and financially incentives through a share of the block rewards could be a way for other alt-coins and even Bitcoin to ensure their network is secured.
At present
each Node is expected to receive random payments of around 1 DRK per day, but like mining the more nodes that join the network, the lower the reward per node, so node operators are gambling the price of Darkcoin will continue to rise.
Darkcoin will seek to implement its main anonymity features through the Master Nodes which are elected at random to carry out mixing of transactions. Once this feature is added, additional services can be conducted through the Master Nodes, enabling them to earn fees.
There were actually 2 attempts to hardfork RC3. Spork is 3rd try.
This wording needs fixed. Nodes get 20% of block reward. SAying it 'comes from the miners" sounds like "miners get fucked" when they don't. It's also not wholly accurate since the payvote process is now part of that. A Block isn't valid without verified, proper votes in the same way it is not valid if the mined block doesn't pass muster. It's a dual-metric block now with an integrated hash. It's not entirely in the miners' hands anymore. The miners contribute hashpower, the MNs contribute votes. Both are required for a valid block under RC3 Enforcement, currently not turned on.
Oh hell no. The randomness, quantity of bad actors still posting invalid and unpaid blocks due to Enforcement being off, and standard deviation, are both heavily monkey-wrenching simple probability formulas at this time. It's part of why the price is dipping; people are fucking stupid. Claiming "MNs are broken, I no has money hose I expected" because they don't understand math. It could very well be that some of these long-term unpaid nodes WOULD HAVE gotten a payment if there were not bad actors still getting away with non-payment. Once Enforced, the probability will start to match simple math more closely. The combination of bad actors and standard deviation mashed together means that simple probability math does NOT apply.
I have more suggestions, but those are the most glaring...
