I'm lifting this straight off the Discord announcement, because I think it explains this Coin's philosophy very nicely (people more alert than me will notice that the listed terms spell the word 'SMART'). To my mind, the tweaks here represent a forward evolution of the masternode format, with features that will keep it both sustainable and rewarding - while remembering to be a Good Citizen!
Scarcity: Difficult to mine. The number of new masternodes created each month will never be more than 108, around 3 each day. Masternode rewards will drop much slower than other coins. A Smartnode will be very hard to attain.
Managed: A Dev Tax will sustain development, advertisement, community development and future exchanges. This will allow the coin to be self sustaining, without the need for communiity fundraising or a large premine.
Altrusistic: Charity nodes will earn money each month for charitable causes, nominated by the community, and voted on by the Masternode holders.
Rewarding: Masternodes will earn the lions share of the rewards of each block: 80%. Masternode holders will be responsible for distributing new coins, instead of miners.
Teamwork: Smartnodes has a full time Dev team behind it, as well as a host of part time support staff and advisors. But we can't do it alone, the most important part of the coin is the community. Community involvement is very much encouraged and will be rewarded.