So you want to create a Znode to earn passive income with your Zcoin cryptocurrency? This is going to be a simple and straight forward tutorial to guide you through this process, showing you exactly what you need, and how to put all of the pieces together.

HIGHLY recommend watching the video tutorial also

Watch the full-length video tutorial on Zcoin Znodes here!

1Your first step is pretty simple, you’ll need 1000 Zcoin XZC, no less, and no more unless you have 2000, or 3000, in which case you would need to create an additional Znode for each 1000 XZC. To be clear a Znode is just Zcoins version of a Masternode. We recommend using Binance to buy & sell, then using Zcoins core desktop wallet to store the Zcoin. You are required to use it for Znodes anyway.

2You’ll need to download and install the Zcoin core wallet, available on every platform. For this tutorial, we’ll be using one of our Mac’s however it is the same process on Windows or Linux. You’ll proceed to install the Zcoin wallet, do not send your coins to the wallet yet though, we will be generating a receive address directly associated with your Znode soon.

3Next you’ll want to secure your Zcoin wallet, you’ll do this by navigating to Settings > Encrypt Wallet. Once you click this you’ll be prompted with the above screen to enter a passphrase… so input your password and don’t lose it otherwise you’ll lose access to your wallet/funds!

4 After you have encrypted your Zcoin wallet navigate to File > Backup Wallet, backing up your wallet is essential the case that your computer should break, or be lost. This will allow you to recover your funds on another computer, keep this file very safe and secure. We store our wallet.dat file on two separate USB drives (redundancy) that are stored in different waterproof & fireproof safes in different locations.

5 We need to generate a Znode key, your Znode will not work without one! To do this we will open the Zcoin desktop wallet and navigate to Help > Debug Window>Console then we will enter this genkey command

znode genkey

After generating your Znode key, which should look something like this

851KPGCZZnXuJvKxBQBJVeSuDwpkSaBs5zSA9cCaYdUTLx8JZmZ

Always keep your keys private, if someone else discovered your Znode key thankfully they could not steal your funds with it, however, they could start and stop your Znode. Next, we will need a deposit address associated with your Znode key, in order to get this we will enter the below command into the same Debug console window as before.

getaccountaddress ZN1

This command will generate a Zcoin address that you are accustomed to seeing, it will look something like this

a6xBX3QME37dAeUVnksXo4de6a7WeVvEcU

6 Store these recently generated addresses in a text file, you will need them for the next step. We used the basic Apple Notes app as shown above, Wordpad on Windows would be fine as well.

If you’d like to generate multiple Znode keys at once, to create multiple Znodes faster you can do so with these commands

znode genkey getaccountaddress ZN2 znode genkey getaccountaddress ZN3

You can continue that process to make as many Znodes as you desire, but keep in mind you need 1000 Zcoin XZC for EACH Znode. Ex. 3 Znodes = 3000 XZC

7You must send exactly 1000 Zcoin XZC to the Znode deposit address you created, in one transaction. Ensure your wallet or exchange is not deducting a fee that would leave you with 999.9 XZC sent for example. Do not subtract fee from amount when sending Zcoin XZC.

Note, if you are creating multiple Znodes it is best to enable coin control, navigate Settings>Options>Wallet and select Enable coin control features to enable this. On Mac navigate Zcoin Core>Preferences>Wallet.

After sending 1000 Zcoin to your ZN1 Znode address, you must wait for 6 confirmations on the Zcoin blockchain for your Znode deposit to be considered valid, this takes less than 1 hour. We will create the actual Zcoin Znode VPS masternode server during this waiting period!

However, one more step before we start working on the actual Znode server.

8You can verify your transactions will work for Znodes by navigating to Help>Debug Window>Console and typing znode outputs as shown above. This will also generate the output(s) we need which look like this

{"99a20bcb3e54f81de3894d92dcbb400b14cd0732ec3a7454c2a2b61db7fc173d": "0"}

The longer first portion is your transaction ID and the second number which is typically “0” or “1” is the index. Source. Add this to your text note from earlier that has your Znode privkey/genkey on it.

Next, we’ll need to create a znode.conf file in your Zcoin data directory.

If you’re on Windows type %appdata%/zcoin into Windows Explorer

On Mac $HOME/Library/Application Support/zcoin/

Note if you have having trouble finding this on Mac unhide hidden folders.

On Linux $HOME/.zcoin folder

After navigating to your znode.conf file (create one if it is not there), open the file. You can use any text editor you’d like, we are using Atom a free high-quality text editor. Edit the file with the below information and format.

Note — You’ll still need your VPS IP address at this point, just put a placeholder IPADDRESS:8168 in that spot until we rent our server, then simply come back, update, and save it.

Note 2 — Label is anything you want to name your Znode server, personal use

IP is the IP address associated with your server, what you used to SSH in

8168 is the required port for your Znode to work

ZNODEPRIVKEY is your…Znode private key, it was created by znode genkey

TXID is the transaction ID, you received this with znode outputs

INDEX is the index number, it was the number after your transaction ID

LABEL IP:8168 ZNODEPRIVKEY TXID INDEX​

An example of the above with my information input looks like this

zn1 209.97.145.254:8168 851KPGCZZnXuJvKxBQBJVeSuDwpkSaBs5zSA9cCaYdUTLx8JZmZ 99a20bcb3e54f81de3894d92dcbb400b14cd0732ec3a7454c2a2b61db7fc173d 0

Ensure you entered your information correctly, and then save the file. Close the znode.conf file and restart your Zcoin wallet.

9 Now we can get to the actual Znode server tutorial, you guessed it, you’ll need a server. You can build/buy your own that you host in your own home but we highly recommend simply renting one. If you’d like to buy a computer to run as your own server, this is an example of a computer that is more than powerful enough to run multiple nodes.

We use Digital Ocean for all our servers because their interface is simply the best and we have never had any downtime with our servers. They do have a referral program, and by using our link you not only help us create future cryptocurrency tutorials, but you also get a $50 credit for free for your Znode server(s). .so why wouldn’t you use our link?!

Also to clarify, a VPS is a Virtual Private Server, you’ll see the term VPS quite often in the “crypto space”. If you’d like an alternative to Digital Ocean, Vultr is very popular and also gives out a $50 free credit currently.

After clicking our link above and signing up with Digital Ocean, or any other VPS provider out there you will then proceed to choose a server or VPS to rent. Technically you could use the $5 a month droplet or VPS from Digital Ocean, however, it is projected to be obsolete by September 2019. I would highly recommend using the standard $10 a month droplet VPS which has the required specifications for a Zcoin Znode today as well as through the rest of the year. 25GB SSD is a minimum requirement, but 50GB SSD is recommended, you’ll also need a GB of RAM, but again 2 GBs of RAM would be better. In addition to the above requirements, any basic CPU in a decent quality VPS will be fine for a Zcoin Znode.

As far as the actual configuration of the VPS goes, Ubuntu 18.04 x64 is fine. Choosing a VPS location does not matter much, I would recommend choosing one in your timezone, but it is, of course, better to distribute nodes across the world to strengthen any blockchain respectively. I’ll be using New York for my VPS location. Most of the other options are irrelevant for our us currently, so we can proceed to create our droplet (VPS).

10 now we can finally start setting up the VPS to become our Zcoin Znode! Digital Ocean will tell you your IP address very clearly, as shown above, simply click it and it will be copied to your clipboard. Use a program like Mac Terminal (pre-installed), or Putty on Windows. Open the program and type

ssh root@ipaddress

An example of this would look like

ssh root@209.97.145.254

You’ll be prompted to create a password… create one!

You don’t want to operate as Root so we will create a new user, to do this you will simply input

adduser USERNAME

After you choose your username, which in our example here will be dogedad you will then need to assign admin (sudo) rights to the user account you

created. To do this you will need to type

usermod -aG sudo USERNAME

Before you switch to your newly created username (as it is best not to operate your server as Root) we will run apt update and apt upgrade these commands will search for any updates, if there are some it will prompt an install and the -y will confirm this for you all in one simple input.

apt update && apt upgrade -y

If you receive any prompts, simply keep the current version installed on your server if it is “locally modified”, the default enter option will suffice for a Znode. The update and upgrade process will be completed at the conclusion of these potential prompts.

After that is completed, switch to your newly created username using su

su USERNAME

There are a few more dependencies we need to install, which if you do not know what a dependency is

Dependencies are applications that your application depends upon. — Greerso

11 Now we need to set up a basic firewall to create a basic level of security for our Zcoin Znode, we will do this with UFW a simple and free firewall for Linux. This is the last dependency we’ll need. Next, you will use the command cd to return to your home directory

cd ~

Now we will install our firewall (UFW)

sudo apt install ufw

It is likely you already have UFW installed, especially if you are using a DigitalOcean VPS, if that is the case simply move onto the next step. We will need to open port 8168 which is required for your Zcoin Znode to operate properly! The below commands will open port 8168, set up, and enable your firewall.

sudo ufw allow ssh/tcp sudo ufw limit ssh/tcp sudo ufw allow 8168/tcp sudo ufw logging on sudo ufw enable

A note from the editor-in-chief Greerso, it is recommended to further secure your server by enabling SSH keys, disabling root and password logins, as well as changing your ssh port however to keep this tutorial simple we will not be providing the walkthrough for that portion. If you’d like advanced help for your Znode please join our Discord server and ask our helpful community.

On the topic of optional steps, most servers with at least 50gb of SSD space will already contain 2gb of RAM, if you have only 1gb of RAM you will need to add a swap file, Zcoins official Znode guide explains this step here.

12 Now we can finally install some Zcoin files! You are either already logged into your server, or it timed out. Make sure you are logged in and under the USERNAME you created & not Root. Enter the below command

Next, we will install the latest version of Zcoin. You can reference the latest version here. Today we are using version 0.13.7.10, if the version changed to 0.13.9.11 you would simply type that in instead of the old version number.

Now run the command wget which downloads the files for you, the tar.gz format you see is essentially a zipped/compressed file, the command ran after wget (tar xzvf) will extract the files.

wget https://bitbucket.org/zcoinofficial/zcoin/downloads/zcoin-0.13.7.10-linux64.tar.gz tar xzvf zcoin-0.13.7.10-linux64.tar.gz

Now, you’ll need to create a new config file in your Znode. After creating the file we will then edit it with Nano.

mkdir ~/.zcoin nano ~/.zcoin/zcoin.conf

Now, you are inside the zcoin.conf file you just created using the text editor Nano. Copy and paste the below information and change YOURNODEIP to the IP address associated with your Znode server, as well as ZNODEPRIVKEY to your own information(the key you created with Znode genkey).

#----

rpcuser=ANYUSERNAME

rpcpassword=ANYPASSWORD

rpcallowip=127.0.0.1

#----

listen=1

server=1

daemon=1

logtimestamps=1

maxconnections=64

txindex=1

#----

znode=1

externalip=YOURNODEIP:8168

znodeprivkey=ZNODEPRIVKEY

An example of this input with my Znode information looks like this. (below)

#----

rpcuser=diglet

rpcpassword=dugtrio

rpcallowip=127.0.0.1

#----

listen=1

server=1

daemon=1

logtimestamps=1

maxconnections=64

txindex=1

#----

znode=1

externalip=209.97.145.254:8168

znodeprivkey=851KPGCZZnXuJvKxBQBJVeSuDwpkSaBs5zSA9cCaYdUTLx8JZmZ

After pasting the above and making appropriate edits you will exit nano

Hold Ctrl, hit x, then y for yes to save, and then enter

13 Exciting news, you can finally start your Zcoin wallet which will begin downloading the blockchain. In order to do this, we will need to navigate to the correct folder and then activate the Zcoin daemon; the below commands will perform exactly that.

Note — Remember if the version changed and you downloaded a differently named file, the command below needs to be changed to reflect that.

cd ~/zcoin-0.13.7/bin ./zcoind -daemon

Downloading the blockchain will take a couple of hours, if you buy a super cheap server, it will take longer! If you’d like bootstrap the blockchain onto your Znode you can do that by downloading the blockchain here, however, this is an advanced step and not recommended if you are not proficient with Linux.

You can check how far along your Zcoin blockchain sync is on your Znode server with this command below. Compare with the entire XZC chain here.

./zcoin-cli getinfo

This process is going to take a while, take a break, walk your dog, get some other work done, watch some My Hero Academia, make lunch, play a videogame or whatever else you’d like to do! Check back in ~2–3 hours and the Zcoin blockchain should be downloaded and synced up.

~2–3 hours later…

Log back into your server, and su into your username, from here you’ll navigate to your Zcoin folder and check the block height with the following commands.

cd ~/zcoin-0.13.7/bin ./zcoin-cli getinfo

Next, you’ll want to reference the blocks in your server with the block height on the official Zcoin block explorer, which again can be found here.

If your blocks match the height on the block explorer, then your server is in-sync with the Zcoin blockchain and you are clear to proceed! If it is still lagging simply give it time, it will catch up eventually.

14 Finally… Let's start the Znode! Switch back over to your Zcoin desktop wallet. Remember you’ll need at least 6 confirmations on the blockchain for this to work, odds are if you followed this guide you have many more confirmations than that already completed.

Now navigate to your Znodes tab on the top, as shown above, and ensure you’re on the My Znodes tab under that.

Click Start MISSING, and this will activate all Znodes that are located in your znode.conf file.

Now your Znode should show PRE_ENABLED under the status column. After approximately 15 minutes the status will transition to ENABLED. If the status changes to EXPIRED then there is a problem with your Znode.

15 Congratulations your Znode is (hopefully) up and operational! How do payments work though? Currently, there are about 5000 Znodes, and with the way the Zcoin Znode payment system works is that the payout would be 5000/288 which equals out to each Znode getting paid every ~17 days. As more Znodes come online this payment interval will continue to increase, and the inverse would, of course, decrease the payment intervals. You can read more in-depth information about Znode payments here.

Side note not applicable to users of only one Znode.

Do not use the start-many command, it will restart all of your Znodes (assuming you have multiple) and your other Znodes that are on functioning properly will be penalized because of this. The proper command to start Znodes that are down and not negatively impact Znodes that are up, would be to use the Znode start-missing command.

Incorrect command

znode start-many

Correct command

znode start-missing

16 Celebrate! You did it, you have now turned coins you were possibly already holding into additional passive income. They say you need multiple income streams to achieve financial freedom, and you’re now one step closer. Please like, share, and subscribe to VoskCoin on YouTube as well as share this write-up!