Phore Staking – Everything You Need to Know
Phore is a blockchain network that values privacy, speed and stability. Phore staking is an integral part of the whole chain as the more stakers there are, the better the security is. Anyone that holds PHR (Phore coin) in the core wallet can start staking at any moment. In return, the user is incentivised with block rewards.
One of the main advantages of the Phore network is the ability to mint PHR coins into zPHR coins with your core wallet. When zPHR is transferred, the receiver would not see or know who and from where the currency was sent. This is to increase security and the anonymity of the network. Also, when you stake zPHR, no one will be able to see how much coins you are staking if you don’t want people to have that info.
Pros & Cons
- High levels of security and privacy due to the ZeroCoin protocol
- Good scalability and fast transactions because of SegWit
- High Return of Investment (ROI) percentage
- A fully working marketplace
- Several partnerships with other real-world entities like Unifox, StoneCash and Platinum Circle
- Not listed on major exchanges due to being a new project
- No limit to the coin supply
How To Stake Phore (PHR)
Staking Phore (PHR) can be very profitable and a great future investment. This is due to the high Return of Investment percentage of about 20-30% annually. Also, the developers are trying to improve the network constantly and are making changes in the crypto world. The future for Phore looks very promising and I can see it surviving almost anything. This is one of the coins where it is a great idea to move from staking to hosting a masternode. Additionally, the developers have partnerships with one of the most forward-thinking companies in their respective field.
Minimum Requirements
- Operational system – Windows, Linux, OSx
- Installed official Phore wallet
- 1GB of Hard Drive space
- 1GB or RAM memory
- A static IP address and unlimited bandwidth internet connection
- Leaving the device online 24/7
The minimum amount of PHR that you will need to start staking is just 1 PHR. Aside from block rewards, the only other way to obtain Phore coins is buying them from exchange platforms. Once you buy the coins, be that from IDAX or Cryptopia, you need to transfer then to your official Phore wallet and wait for 180 blocks to pass so that you can start staking. To begin the process, you have two options available. The first one is using the GUI official wallet (Graphical User Interface) or the CLI official wallet (Command line Interface).
What Coin Version Should You Stake?
As I have mentioned earlier, there are two types of coins native to the network – PHR and zPHR. The only difference between the two is that zPHR is specially minted from PHR coins in order to be anonymous while staking or trading, if you value that function. You can only buy PHR from the exchanges which are used to create zPHR. If you want to sell zPHR on the exchanges, you need to convert them back to Phore coins. These conversions require a minimal transaction fee.
Graphical Interface Phore Wallet Setup
Step 1: Download & Install The Official Wallet
You can go ahead and download the wallet from https://phore.io/#wallet by choosing your OS type. After the installation is finished, you can go ahead and launch the application. The first time you open the client it will ask you for a destination folder. That folder will be used to download and save the whole blockchain history of transactions on the Phore network. It is necessary in order for the wallet to be operational;
Step 2: Encrypt The Wallet
The next step is to encrypt the Phore QT wallet. You need to click on Settings and on Encrypt wallet. After that you need to enter a new password. When you are done the wallet will close and you will need to re-launch it again for your changes to apply. Encrypting the wallet increases the security substantially;
Step 3: Backup The Wallet
Now you need to make a backup on your wallet. Click on File, then on Backup and enter a file name and save. Backing up the wallet like this provides an extra layer of security for your information and funds.
Step 4: Configure The Wallet For Staking
Time to change the configuration file of the wallet. Click on Tools and then Open Wallet Configuration File and in the new file type in:
staking=1 Save the file and close the wallet for the changes to apply.
Step 5: Create a Wallet Address
The next step is to create a wallet address. Open the wallet again and Click “Receive”. You will be asked to enter a label (ex. mywallet) and then click “Request payment”.
Step 6: Unlock The Wallet
Now is time to unlock the wallet. Click on Settings -> Unlock Wallet and enter your password. Please make sure that the field “For staking only” is ticked;
Step 7: Send funds To Your Wallet
Now you need to send some PHR to the wallet and wait for 180 block confirmations – about 3 hours. The minimum amount of Phore that you need for staking is just 1PHR;
Step 8: Check If The Wallet Is Staking
How to check if your wallet is staking? Go to Tools > Debug window and type in: getstakingstatus The output after entering this command will show you if all the configurations of the wallet are correct and if the wallet is staking. If something is not as it should be, please refer to the steps in the guide again.
Command Line Interface Phore Wallet Setup
This option is aimed for people with slower machines or users who wish to spend as little resources as possible. Since we are not using the QT-wallet (GUI version), the whole process will revolve around using command lines. If you are not comfortable using them, please use Method 1. We are aware that most people are going to use this method on Linux based operating systems, so I will do this guide on Ubuntu.
Step 1: Download And Install The Wallet
Let’s download the wallet. Type in the following:
sudo apt-get install curl
curl –s https://api.github.com/repos/phoreproject/Phore/releases/latest | grep browser_download_url | cut –d ‘”’ -f 4
These commands will show you the latest version of the official wallet. Since we are doing this example in Linux OS 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/phoreproject/Phore/releases/download/v.1.3.3.1/phore-1.3.3.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
After you’re done let’s unpack it and then remove the junk file.
tar -xzvf phore-1.3.3.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
this will unpack the files. Change the numbers if you have a newer version.
rm -rf phore-1.3.3.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.tar.gz
This will remove the file which we unpacked. Be careful which Phore you remove. The one that ends with .tar.gz needs to be removed. Time to launch the wallet. Type in:
cd phore-1.3.3/
cd bin
./phored -daem
Keep in mind that the newest version at the time of writing this article is 1.3.3. Your version could be different depending on when you read the article. To be sure which version / folder you have you can write the name of the folder and press tab and the OS will fill in the rest:
cd phore[Tab]
cd bin
./phored -daemon
Step 2: Encrypt The Wallet
This command will encrypt your wallet. Replace with the password of your choosing. Type in:
./phore-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 in:
./phored -daemon
to launch the client.
Step 3: Backup The Wallet
This step is extremely important and should not be skipped. To back up your wallet type in:
./phore-cli backupwallet <Your selected folder / external driver / USB]>
Example:
./phore-cli backupwallet ~/phore-1.3.3/bin/
Step 4: Create New Wallet Address
Let’s create a new address to which you will send the coins for staking. Type in:
./phore-cli getnewaddress
You will receive an address. Go to the exchange where you have your coins and send exactly 1 PHR to the address. After you confirm that the coins are on their way you can send the rest of your coins.
Don’t forget that you need 180 confirmations to be able to stake.
Step 5: Unlock The Wallet And Check Staking Status
Before you can start staking Phore you need to unlock the wallet. Type in:
./phore-cli walletpassphrase <passphrase> 0 true
<passphrase> – the passphrase you used to encrypt your wallet.
0 – number of seconds which your wallet will stay unlocked. 0 means unlimited.
true – unlocked only for staking.
And that’s it. You should be ready for staking. Now let’s check the status of your staking. Type in:
./phore-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 incomplete. Refer back to this guide in that case.
Phore Staking Reward
The average Return of Investment or ROI depends on the coin age, network weight, your weight in the network and expected time until the next reward.
What is coin age, you might ask? Well, it is somewhat straight forward. Coin age is the age of your coins, or how much time they have spent in one place without being moved. As an example, a friend of your sends you 5000 coins. Five days later you decide to buy 10000 more coins. Now in your wallet you will have 2 groups of coins – the ones that are 5 days old and the new ones that are 1 day old. When coins are sent to another address or successfully staked, their age resets to 0.
Regarding the network weight, your weight in the network and the expected time until the next reward, they will need further explanation. According to the Phore protocol, every minute, there is something like a raffle going on, which results in a single block being created. I refer to the random choosing of a block validator as a raffle.
The network weight of the network can be considered as the total number of tickets to that raffle. It is also a sum of the coin age of all coins being staked at that moment. Your weight in the network, on the other hand, is defined by how many “tickets” for participation in the raffle you own. That is calculated by summing up the coin age of the coins that you have up for staking. The more of these tickets you have, the higher the chance is for you to get chosen as the next block validator, hence more coins means better odds. Of course, it is still completely random, so this is just an approximation and it is not guaranteed. This could mean that it can either take you less or more time than the expected time before a reward. These values average out in the end and become pretty accurate, if the wallet is open 24/7 for staking that is.
Let’s talk about the comparison between masternodes and staking in the Phore blockchain. The most notable difference between them is consistency. While in staking, the rewards are not guaranteed, and it is completely random, with masternodes it is the opposite. Hosting a masternode means more stable returns as everyone gets his turn and it is a guaranteed reward but require a large investment to get started.
Unfortunately, there is no way to accurately predict how often you will receive rewards during staking as it is completely random. Here is an example of what you can expect as rewards:
Currently – 2.8 PHR staking reward per block;
9th March 2019 – 1.8 PHR staking reward per block;
11th September 2019 – 1.44 PHR staking reward per block;
9th September 2020 – 1.08 PHR staking reward per block;
Phore is a relaunch of a new project called KryptKoin. The blockchain was created with proof of stake protocol in it since the beginning so it is unaware what kind of algorithm the system uses as that is mainly used with Proof Of Work consensus methods.
How to Maximize Rewards
I would like to be completely honest here. There is no known way to increase your rewards. The only thing you could try to improve is the frequency at which you receive those rewards. There are two methods – pool staking and coin control.
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Pool Staking
- What pool staking is a group of users coming together with their funds and giving them to a 3rd party to stake as one. This way as a whole there is a much higher chance to hit blocks and receive rewards. They are later on divided among the users based on the size of their stake individually.Currently, there are no official staking pools for Phore. Of course, there are the staking pools that communities might create, but I would like to warn you that security is nonexistent once you decide to stake in a pool. That’s because you have to share your information and funds with a 3rd party.
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Coin Control
- Every time you receive a block reward, the coins get split into two equal pieces (well, most of the time). If you’ve staked 1000 PHR you would receive 2 blocks (UTXO) with an output of 501.4 each. Don’t worry, your wallet sums up all the coins you received from staking. The use of coin control is to combine all those small rewards into one or several addresses. Those addresses will hold all the coins you want to stake instead of having them spread out into separate blocks, which is very inefficient. Since they are combined, there is a higher chance of being “chosen”, hence you receive your rewards more frequently than if you just left your coins sitting in smaller blocks.Before we continue you need to be sure that your wallet is staking.
How To Check:
Go to your wallet and click on Tools > Debug window and inside the console type in:
getstakingstatus
You’ll see different functions as a result of that command. Make sure all of them state “true” before continuing with the coin control. If not, go back to the beginning and compare the steps you did with the guide.
How To Enable Coin Control:
It’s straight forward. Go to Settings then to Options and click on the “Wallet” tab. You’ll see “Enable coin control features” field. Enable that function with a tick and click OK.
Dust Control:
Now, let’s gather all the blocks together since that’s the reason we enabled coin control in the first place.
Go to your wallet, click on “Receive and create a new address”. Then you will be asked to fill in a label on the top part of the wallet. After you are done with that click “Request payment”.
You’ve created a new address which will be your new “staking node”.
After you created an address, select the address, double click and choose “Copy address”. Time to send all the small block payments to this address. Go to the Send tab and paste the address in the “Pay to:” field. If you pasted the address correctly the wallet should recognize that you created it and fill in the label. In the case that it doesn’t, check the address again in the case that something was missed.
Now you should be able to see the “Open Coin Control…” button in the top part of the screen. Click on it. A new window will open with all the block rewards you’ve received. If you don’t see anything, don’t panic. That means you just recently started your staking and you haven’t received any staking rewards yet.
Now click on “Select all” or just the ones that are with a small number and click ok.
At the right side of the wallet you will see the total number of PHR coins you are going to send. Copy the number and paste it in the “Amount:”. Before you click send Read about “Splitting Outputs”.
Split Addresses
When combining all the rewards you usually send them to one address. While this is not a bad strategy, it is not the most profitable one. Every time you hit a block your coin’s age get reset to 0 and you must wait for the coins to mature. When staking Phore, you need to wait 180 blocks for the coins to mature enough so that they are available for staking.
After you’ve selected all the small rewards that you received, you will see a button “Split UTXO”. If you want to use this option enable it and on the right side enter the amount of staking blocks you want to have. After you’re done with that you can click on “Send”. You’ve just sent all your small block rewards to the new address/addresses. This will increase the chance of getting a reward which will in return increase the passive income you receive.
It’s a good idea to do this every few weeks, to increase the chances of getting a reward.
Figure Out Your Profit With The Phore Staking Calculator
It is understandable that you would like to calculate your earnings before you actually invest into Phore. Who wouldn’t. For the sake of having an example, I have calculated what would your expected earnings be if you stake 1000 PHR.
The rewards equate to a 37% annual ROI with staking. Please bear in mind that due to the random nature of when you will be chosen as a block validator, the results from the calculator are only a rough estimate. Although it might vary from user to user, the final result should roughly be the same as in the calculator.
On a side note, the ROI will go down with the increase of users staking on the network. The ROI is so high because a very small amount of the coins in circulation are used for staking purposes.
FAQ
No, you cannot. Mining requires the proof of work consensus protocol, while Phore operates fully on PoS consensus method.
Yes, you can. You will need to use the CLI wallet staking method with it.
After sending the funds to your wallet, you would need to wait 180 blocks before you are eligible to stake.
Yes, it is. It has a very promising future and already has partnerships with companies that are true leaders in their fields.
No, there is no maximum supply currently.
Because of the very high ROI and you should join the network before that ROI drops. Additionally, there are masternodes available for the network.
There are two possibilities. Either the coins are not mature enough to start staking yet, or the wallet is not unlocked.
About Phore
As I mentioned earlier, Phore is a re-launch of a project called KryptoKoin. It was the very first crypto market project in the world along with Kryptly. It boasted its own fiat currency gateway and an amazing community backing it. Unfortunately, the main developer for KryptoKoin developed a severe illness which forced him to step down while getting treatment. This brought to the demise of the project in 2015.
Unique Selling Points
Phore is a dual coin network. Users get to choose between the standard PHR and the private coin zPHR, which users that value their anonymity can use. Additionally, staking Phore offers great returns, stability and has a very bright future. The high ROI will lower with time and with the increase of users in the network, so now is a better time than ever to start your staking journey with Phore.
Team
The team currently consists of 22 people working tirelessly towards improvement and updates. The two CEOs of the project are Anthony Alleyne, who is a blockchain analyst and investor, and Thomas Ambler, who is an expert in Business, Math and Economics. Additionally, except them, there are 2 ambassadors that have earned the respect of the community through their activity in social media. The two ambassadors are known by their twitter accounts – Panama Crypto and Mr. Backwards. They are both with a lot of experience in the crypto world and are assisting Phore.
Network
Basically, the Phore blockchain is an ecosystem that constantly improves the technology behind PHR. It will be creating new and innovating decentralized applications and host a decentralized marketplace. Phore provides opportunities for crowdfunding and other blockchain related services to 3rd parties.
Privacy
The network has implemented a custom version of the ZeroCoin protocol called zPHR in order to provide private transactions. The protocol allows PHR coins to be minted into zPHR coins, allowing nodes to confirm transactions without knowing the link between sender and receiver, giving complete anonymity.
Future
The future of Phore is full of innovation and amazing updates. From fully launching their marketplace to an upgrade for the wallets and increase in security. One of the most notable updates that will be coming in the future is Project Nucleus, which includes implementation of Sharding to the network. Sharding splits the blockchain into smaller chains that can have different consensus rules. This will provide great scaling potential to Phore as well as prevent the need of hard forks. With the release of the sharding, they plan to release the Synapse project which will allow execution of smart contracts on the blockchain. If you would like to know more about the roadmap of the Phore network, visit their official link – https://phore.io/#roadmap
Useful Weblinks
- Official Website: https://phore.io
- Announcement Page: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3179265.0
- GitHub: https://github.com/phoreproject/Phore
- Block Explorer: https://chainz.cryptoid.info/phr
- Whitepaper: https://phore.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Phore_Blockchain_Whitepaper_v2.2.pdf
- Socials:
- Twitter Discord Telegram Reddit/Subreddit