If you are interested in passive income by staking PIVX, a privacy-focused crypto coin, then you should continue reading this article. We will be discussing some of the most important factors that influence your staking income.

What Is PIVX?

PIVX stands for Private Instant Verified Transaction. The PIVX blockchain and cryptocurrency resulted from a fork of the DASH blockchain, but with a very notable difference. Instead of using Proof-of-Work as its consensus mechanism like DASH, PIVX has implemented Proof-of-Stake as a consensus mechanism.

Because of this consensus mechanism, new PIVX coins are not generated through mining, and that means it does not require expensive mining hardware or having to deal with mining software and mining pools. Instead, those that hold PIVX coins in the official core PIVX wallet and keep the wallet open and running with an internet connection receive rewards.

Proof-of-Stake is more environmentally and resource-friendly than Proof-of-Work as it requires no additional energy in producing new coins.

PIVX was initially launched under the name Darknet (DNET) on February 1, 2016, but was later rebranded to PIVX due to community feedback. PIVX is focused on enabling transactions that are instantaneous and private, as well as developing a governance that supports the network while bringing advantages to all PIVX users.

PIVX also puts a great deal of emphasis on privacy. To enhance its existing privacy, PIVX implemented in November 2017- Zerocoin, a privacy-enhancing protocol. This made PIVX the very first Proof-of-Stake coin to migrate to the Zerocoin protocol.

This change of protocol enabled PIVX users to send and receive financial transactions while being completely anonymous. PIVX also has many future developments in the plan, including a decentralized exchange, an iOS wallet, in-wallet voting, flexible block sizes, and I2P Network integration.

PIVX is currently priced at $0.864112, having a market cap of $49,065,304. The coin’s current circulating supply is of 56,781,166 PIVX.

Passive Income PIVX Staking

Because PIVX is a Proof-of-Stake coin, anyone who holds PIVX coins in the official PIVX core desktop wallet can stake their coins to receive new coins passively. If you want to know just how much passive income you can make, access the official PIVX Staking Rewards Calculator.

PIVX Wallet

The first thing you have to do is download the official PIVX desktop wallet from here. Download the version that is compatible with your operating system and then install it. Do not select the Light Desktop Wallet if you intend on staking. You will then have to agree to the installation directory and then click “Next” a few times. This process will take less than a minute.

Next, a screen will be displayed, and it will ask where to store the data directory. This is where the blockchain data will be kept. It requires a minimum of 1GB of available memory. The default directory will be adequate, and you can click “OK”. If Windows Defender or other anti-virus appear on the screen with a pop-up message just click to allow access.

The PIVX core desktop wallet will then launch and start downloading the blockchain. That download will require several hours to complete its process, so just let it run until it’s done.

In the meantime, you can buy some PIVX from Binance, Bittrex or Bithumb. Once the wallet is synched you will be able to move them to the new PIVX wallet.

Next, you’ll want to encrypt the wallet to ensure its security. You can achieve this by accessing “Settings” and clicking “Encrypt Wallet…” This will create a password that will be used to unlock the wallet when needed.

Now, unlock the wallet with the password that has been generated. When unlocking, tick the box that reads “For anonymization and staking”. The wallet will open and if a little green arrow in the lower right corner of the wallet is displayed, this means that the wallet has started staking.

In order to receive the full staking reward, you must keep your wallet open and connected to the internet 24/7. If the wallet is only operative 30% of the day, then only 30% of the reward will be received.

PIVX Masternodes

Another profitable method of generating returns is by running a “masternode” on the PIVX network. Masternodes are basically authority nodes on the network that will execute certain services which cannot be done by other nodes on the network.

The PIVX masternodes facilitate the process of making transactions anonymous and instant and they also contribute to important governance decisions. To be able to operate a masternode on the PIVX network you will be required to stake 10,000 PIVX. This will serve as collateral to keep the masternode honest and working in the best interest of the network.

At current prices, you need to have a minimum of $7.628 to be able to run a masternode. While this may be not so budget-friendly for investors that are just delving into crypto, it can increase your staking rewards significantly.

In the case in which you stake a minimum of 10,000 PIVX, not only will you receive 37.88 PIVX for staking but they will also get the 53.92 PIVX for the masternodes reward.

Therefore, if you are already staking a larger sum over 6,000 PIVX, it would make sense to add 4,000 more to be able to run a masternode and earn that extra reward.

Conclusion

While PIVX does pose some interesting features as a privacy coin, many PIVX owners have more interest in its staking feature. And that’s reasonable since you receive dividends for something as simple as holding the coin in an open wallet.