If you trade in, or pay attention to, smart money (Cryptocurrencies) then you've heard of PIVX, the fork of Dash that's been climbing the coin ladder recently and has broken into the top 20 coins. But what are they offering that has the market responding so positively? I took a dip into the slack and went through wallet set up + staking to see what it was all about. This is intended to be a newbie guide for those on Mac interested in staking their PIVX or anyone interested in why they might want to do that.

Since the price of PIVX is a hot topic, let's start off this morning by watching PIVX bouncing around .60 USD:

So What's The Big?

PIVX is the privacy-centric smart money that looks very much like Dash but with some very important differences. From the PIVX manifesto to the mechanisms they employ to mitigate masternode voting consolidation, they couldn't be more different than their cousin. But beyond these governance methodologies and ideological declarations, PIVX also offers Proof-of-Stake (PoS) in addition to Proof-of-work (PoW).

If you are unfamiliar with this term, Proof-of-stake is like mining with your coin balance. If you have 5000 PIVX and don't plan on using it or moving it around, you can set it up to Stake. If you keep your computer on and your wallet unlocked for Staking purposes you can receive PIVX rewards, currently approx 6.08 PIV when rewards are received.

Basically, it's a savings account that helps to keep the network secure and whose existence helps to balance the influence miners or stakers might achieve. PIVX employs a see-saw mechanism where when there are too many masternodes, block rewards are shifted in favor of Staking.

There are specific thresholds that activate the 'see-sawing' of rewards, but as this is a newbie guide to explain how and why to Stake your PIVX, we won't delve into the technical details. Suffice to say that when masternodes start to dominate the network they are disincentivized, just like the stakers are if there are many more stakers than MN's.

Staking Determines Frequency

So before you go running out to load up on all the PIVX you can get your virtual hands on, you should understand how it works. Once you have downloaded, set up, and encrypted your wallet you're just about ready to get stakin'. On Mac, I had to click on tool > open config menu which took me to an editor where I had to simply copy the following info and update the words in CAPS.

rpcuser=LONGRANDOMSTRING
rpcpassword=LONGRANDOMSTRING
rpcallowip=127.0.0.1
staking=1
listen=1
server=1
daemon=1
logtimestamps=1
maxconnections=256

(Change the words in CAPS)

This was the only step that I had any trouble with, and I am still very much green when it comes to crypto. Once you've updated this and closed the editor, you will need to restart the wallet client. Once restarted, you'll have to wait until all updates are made and then unlock your wallet (for anonymization or staking only).

Now here is the part that took me forever to get... wait. It may take 5 minutes, 05 seconds like in the following tutorial by @cryptoiskey.

Don't go fiddling with network settings or panic or anything. Just relax, and maybe do a test run of sending some PIVX to the wallet (small amount) but don't rush and, eventually, you'll see that green arrow light up and you'll be staking!

So how much will get you now that you've joined in on the privacy party? Well, that depends. You can see in the following screenshot that the current reward for staking is 6.08, so if/when your staking wallet is selected, this is how much you will receive. But how often?

This is where the amount of PIVX in your wallet matters. The more you have, the more frequently your stake may be called and the more frequently you'll see block rewards for your hard work. So if you have 15k staking in a wallet, you'll see rewards more often than the person with 1,500 PIVX. This is by no means a clear answer, but it's hard to pin a clear answer down when there are so many factors that could affect selection.

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Conclusion

Setting up my wallet and beginning to stake was much easier than I thought it'd be. I am running a Late 2012 Mac Mini with SSD and upgraded Ram and latest OSX. With what I've staked, I'll be lucky to see any action at all, but I'm curious so I will move forward and update everyone on any results.

If you are working on a mac and still cannot get your wallet staking, please visit the PIVX SLACK.

So if you are hovering close to the MN number of 10,000 PIVX you may want to bite the bullet and set one up. But if you aren't planning on sticking around long or are too lazy to hit up slack for set up help, then staking is a realistic option that still benefits you and the network.

And the people on the slack are definitely friendly types, with several Steemians among their ranks! @bitcoiner @cryptosi and some others that are escaping me at the moment. So basically, don't fear the Slack, there are steemians there :)

I am still learning a lot about PIVX, PART and Particl and more, so there's more to come! Follow along and/or leave a comment below.

----------EDIT----------

I was just updated by some of the team in Slack with a great clarification. In order to stake, the PIVX in your wallet needs to meet a requirement for 101 confirmations. This would explain why I had so much trouble staking at first and would further explain why it suddenly started working this morning when I'd done nothing extra. Again, patience will be your friend. Thanks @ferps !

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This is not intended to be investment advice. I am using my own PIVX to experiment with Staking, not encouraging anyone else to do anything else. Please be safe when investing.

@Prufarchy