On January 22 GMT, coinciding with block 3715200, elements of PIVX's financial structure changed. Payments to the treasury, staking rewards, and Masternode rewards increased. This is part of the PIVX version 5.5.0 upgrade, which will improve funding for initiatives, further secure blockchain integrity, and grow the number of Masternodes.
With this upgrade, maximum treasury payments will surge by an order of magnitude to 10 PIV per block. (PIV is the cryptocurrency unit for PIVX.) PIVX produces a new block roughly every minute, with 43,200 blocks per monthly cycle, and the new rate corresponds to 432,000 PIV per monthly cycle to pay for coding, marketing, and other helpful efforts. This amount is not necessarily all paid out, but represents a cap for projects that are elected by PIVX Masternode voting. The actual payout in any given monthly cycle may be less, but this increase in the cap brings the potential for great technical and marketing advancement.
Staking payments will double to 4 PIV per block. PIVX is a Proof of Stake (PoS) cryptocurrency, and staking is used to secure it. Staking is done through nodes, which are software units running a PIVX wallet and communicating with other nodes. With each block, one of the staking nodes is chosen at random, with probability proportional with the amount of PIV it has staked, to process the block. With this upgrade, the randomly chosen staking node will be paid 4 PIV when selected. This increase will strengthen the PIVX network by encouraging more PIVX owners to stake.
Masternode payments will double to 6 PIV per block. Masternodes are created by running specially configured node software and posting 10,000 PIV to enable Masternode status. Masternodes cycle through selection for payment. They will now receive 6 PIV with each cycle. Masternodes vote on treasury expenditures and represent a resource available for future PIVX applications--which could include rapid settlement, mixing, offline processing, interacting with other blockchains, and much more. Some new applications will need more Masternodes, and this payment increase incentivizes more Masternodes to support these advancements.
Members of the PIVX community, including newcomers, should take action based on these changes. If you have ideas for improving PIVX, propose them--there will be more funding available for good ideas. If you have idle PIV, stake it or use it to make Masternodes. Staking is a quick and essential way to maximize the return on your PIVX investment, and Masternode operation is a way to both make a return and influence the direction of PIVX by voting on proposals. The rewards for both are now much bigger.
Embrace PIVX's 5.5.0 upgrade and its many exciting opportunities.
