The Double-Edged Sword of Masternodes: What Happens When Inflation Surpasses Reward

Dash CEO Ryan Taylor says the network's slow sell-off of master nodes in late 2018 has increased the “circulating” supply of Dash (that is, the coins not collateralized in master nodes) to the tune of 22% per annum as of this year. Taylor compared Dash’s annual inflation rate with that of other coins like Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (below) to that of others. He also found that masternode ROI was nearly always higher than Dash's inflation rate. But since the block reward is a fixed pie, the more masternodes that got spun up over time, the less frequently each node received a payment. This effect has likely been felt.