Bulwark Staking – Everything You Need to Know
Staking Bulwark (BWK) is for those of you that seek a project which emphasizes strongly on user privacy. The coin has the ability to send instant transactions and perform private ones too, which obfuscate user data. The consensus algorithm supported was Proof of Work but since June 2018 its Proof of Stake. The plan is to equalize profitability for staking and masternode. Have in mind that the overall cost and risk of shared masternode is no better than the staking option. Yes, Bulwark supports masternodes, but its purpose is to increase the number of transactions processed by the network, improve the working capacity and promote the coin holding.
Pros & Cons
- Super user-friendly interface and you can set it up pretty much in no time
- Staking Bulwark is extremely cost-effective and all the resources you need are just the simple core wallet and coins to stake of course
- You need a hot wallet and you need to keep it unlocked to perform the staking process
- Staking in general yields low rewards and it’s hard to predict the profitability or the payout frequency due to high competition on the network
How to Stake Bulwark
On the 20th of June 2018, the network officially switched to Proof of Stake. To start the staking process, you need to unlock that option in your wallet and keep it on the whole time, if you close it or stop the machine, you will stop your staking. The whole procedure is super easy but bear in mind that you will need at least 6000 Bulwark to receive staking reward on a daily basis, that according to the official Bulwark block explorer.
Minimum Requirements
- Windows 7 and up/ Linux (Preferably Ubuntu 14 and up), Mac OS and Raspberry Pi2
- Installed Bulwark Core Wallet
- Minimum disk space of 10 GB
- 512 MB RAM
- No minimum or maximum internet speed
- You need to keep the wallet online 24/7 (if you decide to log out of your wallet or shut down your PC, it will stop the staking process unless it has the option for cold staking)
Summary: You need to be sure that your wallet version is the latest on the market, you can download it from here. Sync your wallet with minimum 100BWK in each input and make sure that each one has at least 475 confirmations.
What Coin Version you Should Stake?
A key feature of Bulwark, that I need to note, is the presence of a zerocoin implementation – zBWK. This is the privacy-oriented alternative, present in the Bulwark network. It provides complete anonymity by hiding from other participants, the sender’s and receiver’s addresses and the amount transferred. The value of zBWK is the same as that of a standard BWK, the only difference is the way you send them. Upon receiving, zBWK is transformed back to BWK automatically for the user. The crucial part here is that the transaction history is wiped.
To convert BWK to zBWK and back, you will need to pay a small fee, so keep that in mind.
Staking zBWK and BWK yields the same results, however, you’ll have peace of mind that no person on the network knows how much you’re staking.
Bulwark Wallet Setup (GUI)
Step 1: Download & Install the Official Wallet
Download and install the latest version of the official wallet. Unzip the file and choose а certain directory for your wallet storage. Open bin folder and run bulwark-qt.exe.
Launch the wallet and choose again storage folder location. Compared to other QT wallets, you don’t need to worry about moving your wallet blockchain file. Once you are done with all of that, your wallet will create core files and start synchronizing with the network. You will be able to see transaction funds when the process is completed.
On the wallets dashboard you will find the tabs: overview, send, receive, transactions and masternode.
Step 2: Encrypt The Bulwark Wallet
Click on the Settings menu and choose “Encrypt wallet”, enter a password and confirm it. The wallet must be restarted.
Step 3: Backup The Bulwark Wallet
You must click File-> Backup wallet and enter file name on your backup wallet and click “Save”
Go to the Backups folder in your AppData folder for Bulwark staking. Instructions on how to do so are located below.
Windows: Press Windows+R and write %appdata%
macOS: Press Command+Space to open Spotlight, write ~/Library/Application Support/Bulwark and press Enter
Linux: Open ~/.bulwark/
Copy the folder on the external drive.
Step 4: Create a Wallet Address
To receive funds, you need a BWK address, just go to the File menu, choose to “receive address” and create the new one. It will be best if you label them to prevent any future errors if you have more than one of course.
Step 5: Transfer Coins to the Wallet
Copy your wallet address and go back to the exchange where you purchased your coins from. Paste it there to send over 1 BWK. After you’ve confirmed the address is valid and everything is in order, send the rest.
Step 6: Unlock the Bulwark Wallet
Point the Settings button and then unlock your wallet. In the checkbox must be written “for anonymization, multisend and staking only” and then type in your password. In 12h or 475 confirmation you will be eligible for Bulwark staking.
Staking with the Command Line Wallet (CLI)
If you don’t have or you don’t want to spend much for recourses, you can choose a wallet with command lines. If you don’t understand them it will be best to go ahead with method 1. Since most of the people will run it on Linux, here is the Ubuntu Bulwark staking guide.
Step 1: Download & Installing
Download the wallet and type the following:
sudo apt-get install git
sudo apt-get install curl
curl –s https://api.github.com/repos/bulwark-crypto/Bulwark/releases/latest | grep browser_download_url | cut –d ‘”’ -f 4
These commands will show you the latest version of the official wallets. Since we will use Ubuntu as an example, we will download the one which ends with tar.gz. Copy the link and use it in the next command.
wget- Paste the link which ends on tar.gz
Example:
wget https://github.com/bulwark-crypto/Bulwark/releases/download/2.0.0/bulwark-2.0.0-linux64.tar.gz
Unpack it and then remove the junk file.
tar -xzvf bulwark-2.0.0-linux64.tar.gz
this command will unpack the file.. Change the numbers if you have a different version.
mkdir ~/bulwark
cd bin && mv bulwark* ~/bulwark && mv test* ~/bulwark
rm -rf bulwark-2.0.0-linux64.tar.gz
cd bulwark/
The previous command will relocate the files in another location and remove the zip file. Proceed with cautious which Bulwark folder you remove, it must be the one ending on tar.gz.
Launch your wallet for the first time and type:
./bulwarkd -daemon
At first, the wallet will ask you to type in a rpcuser and rpcpassword. Type in the following command:
cd ~/.bulwark && nano bulwark.conf
The command will create a text file and open it. Type in:
rpcuser= Username
rpcpassword= Password
After you’re done with replacing the
Launch the wallet again and fill in:
cd ~/bulwark/
./bulwarkd -daemon
Step 2: Encrypt the CLI Wallet
This command will encrypt your wallet. Replace
./bulwark-cli encryptwallet -your password
Do not forget the passphrase. No one can help you if you forget it.
After you’ve typed in the command above with your passphrase, the wallet will shut down. Type this one:
./bulwarkd -daemon
And launch the client.
Step 3: Backup the CLI Wallet
This step is extremely important, to back up your wallet type in:
./bulwark-cli backupwallet - Your selected folder / external driver / USB]
Example:
./bulwark-cli backupwallet ~/bulwark
Step 4: Transfer Coins to the Wallet
Create a new address and to send your Bulwark staking coins there. Command:
./bulwark-cli getnewaddress
After you receive the address, visit the exchange where you have obtained your coins and send exactly 1 BWK to the address. After you see that the coins are safely transferred, do the same with the rest of them.
Don’t forget that you need 67 confirmations to be able to stake.
Step 5: Unlock the CLI Wallet
To start staking you need to unlock that options in your wallet. Type in:
./bulwark-cli walletpassphrase passphrase 0 true
<passphrase> – the passphrase you used to encrypt your wallet.
0 – the number of seconds which your wallet will stay unlocked, zero means unlimited
true – unlocked only for staking.
Now let’s check the status of your staking. Type in:
./bulwark-cli getstakingstatus
This command will show you which necessary steps are done, and which are not. If you see “false” that means that that step is not configured, or it is incomplete.
Bulwark Staking Reward
Currently, the Bulwark staking reward per block is at 31.250 BWK. The split is between 35% for stakers and 65% for masternodes. Once the blockchain reaches block number 345,601 the sum of coins awarded will be dropped to 25 BWK and the split will shift to 30%/60%/10% for stakers/masternodes/budgeting. On average, you can expect up to a 43% yearly ROI.
To start staking Bulwark, you’ll need to own at least 100 BWK coins and have your wallet properly set up. For your funds to be eligible for staking, you’ll need to wait for 475 confirmations, which roughly translates into 12 hours. The chances of winning depend on the number of coins you own, versus the total number of coins currently staked in the network.
In the section below, you’ll find my tips on optimizing your chances of winning a reward.
How to Maximize Rewards
Unfortunately, there is no way of influencing the amount of the reward you can receive from staking aside from a consensus change. However, there are ways to optimize your chances of winning.
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Pool Staking
- I prefer to be straightforward with you and to tell you that pool staking is not profitable, and it doesn’t make any sense, let me explain why. The mining pools are great when we speak about Proof of Work consensus, with Proof of stake the staking pools work differently and the ROI rate for staking in a pool or just staking is pretty much the same. Being part of a staking pool will expose you on potential threats because you need to share more information than needed and you are obligated to pay a percentage of the amount received from the pool.
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Coin Control
- Let me first explain briefly what coin control means. Every reward received will be split into 2 equal pieces, for example, if you stake 1000 BWK, you should receive 2 blocks (UTXO) with 505.5 BWK in each. Your wallet will sum them up anyway, but coin control means to combine those small rewards or several addresses in one. When they are bundled you increase the chance to be “chosen”, hence, you receive incentives more frequently. Before I proceed further with the explanation, I want you to check and be sure that you’re staking.
How To Check:
Go the wallet`s “Tools” many and choose the “Debug” console and type in:
getstakingstatus
A many with different functions will appear before you. Make sure that their status is “true” if not, check my guide again and go through the steps of configuration and find out what’s wrong.
How To Enable Coin Control:
To enable the coin control, you go to the “Settings” menu and choose “Options”, go to “Wallet” and click “Enable coin control features”, click OK and it’s done.
Dust Control:
The point of enabling the coin control is to combine all blocks together, it’s hard to digest I know, let me explain in detail. Open your wallet and seek for “receive and create a new address”, click it and fill the label on the top of the screen and click “request payment”
You have a new address now for your “staking node”
Upon completion of the first step, you need to copy that address and move to the next step. It is time to send all small block payments to that particular address. Choose the “send” tab and paste the address in the field “Pay to”. If everything is correct for filled, the wallet will recognize the address.
Now the “Open coin control” button should be at the top side of the screen, select it. A new window will pop out, it will show all block rewards received already. No need to panic, if you don’t see anything, that means probably that something is wrong with the configuration so far or that you didn’t receive your first staking reward yet. Choose “select all” and click “OK”.
On the right side of the screen, you will be able to see the total sum of your coins you are about to send. Copy the number and paste it in the “amount” field, don’t forget to check the information about “splitting outputs”
Split Addresses
As I explained previously, combining the rewards means to send them to one address. It is a good approach but not quite a profitable one because every time you hit a block, your coin`s age is reset to 0 and you must wait for its maturity again.
After you select all your small rewards, seek for the button “Split UTXO”. To use that options, you need to enable it from the right, choose the amount of staking blocks and voila. After that, all you need to do is to click “send”.
And that was everything, it’s done. Your chance of getting a reward is now increased altogether with your passive income. To enhance more your performance, repeat the procedure every several weeks.
Figure out Your Profit with the Bulwark Staking Calculator
I’ve mentioned how the rewarding system works, now it’s time for you to estimate your future profits. Keep in mind, that you’ll need to subtract your electricity costs for the hardware which runs your wallet.
FAQ
No, as it’s a Proof of Stake coin only.
Yes, but you need to use the command line wallet instead because there is no dedicated wallet.
After 475 confirmations (~ 12 hours) you will be allowed to stake Bulwark.
Taking under consideration the uniqueness of the project and the fact that it’s not a copy of another coin, yes, it’s worth staking.
Yes, there is, 27,000,000BWK.
Staking Bulwark does not require any expensive hardware, the masternode options and the high ROI rate (43%) are enough to convince you.
It is possible if your coins are not mature, yes, or you missed something in the configuration of your wallet.
About Bulwark (BWK)
Bulwark is a cryptocurrency that focuses on user privacy, open source hardware development and the freedom of choice for its users. You can make a profit either by staking Bulwark or hosting a Bulwark masternode. Key features include the possibility for instant transfers and absolute anonymity of transactions.
Unique Selling Points
The Bulwark team is a proper example of and creative and innovative open source development community. It is stated that Bulwark will always be an open-source platform strongly oriented to the opinion of its users.
Team
The director and founding member of Bulwark`s team is called Levi Bulwark. He is the managing figure of the team, he is responsible for the whole working process and of course, he ensures that all deadlines are met.
Network
The network is an old and more reliable version of PivX, its hand patched up to PivX 2 and 3 and then backported code from Bitcoin 0.13 and Dash 12.1, more info you can find in their whitepaper. The average block time is 90 second and the approximate total blocks per day are 960.
Privacy
The development team says they are looking to acquire new protocols to increase the level of privacy. They stated that a few improvements are in testing motion already: L2p privacy network, stealth addressing, levelling the synchronization of the codebase closer to the Bitcoin mainline and streamlining.
Future
With this amazing team and the fact that they are reliable and entirely dedicated to the project and they follow a certain order of integration of new features, leads me to the conclusion that there’s much more to see in the future.
Useful Weblinks
- Official Website: https://bulwarkcrypto.com
- Announcement Page: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2499481.0
- GitHub: https://github.com/bulwark-crypto
- Block Explorer: https://explorer.bulwarkcrypto.com
- Whitepaper: https://bulwarkcrypto.com/whitepaper
- Socials:
- Twitter Discord Telegram Reddit/Subreddit Facebook