From crypto trading to mining, staking, and the good old “hodling,” there are several ways to earn passive income from digital assets. But only a few opportunities promise passive income quite like running a masternode.

Masternodes are blockchain nodes that incentivize nodes operators to support a network. Running one requires dedicating collateral in the native platform currency. In exchange, node operators earn rewards in crypto just for keeping their nodes online.

In this article, we briefly examine seven promising masternode projects entering 2024. We walk through key stats like collateral requirement, approximate ROI based on recent rewards, and total number of active nodes. Just as important, we provide a quick primer on the project itself – its purpose, technological infrastructure, and roadmap.

Let’s get it on…

Dash

Pioneering the concept of crypto masternodes, Dash started in 2014 seeking to drive blockchain adoption for payments. Dash or “Digital Cash” aims to be everyday digital money allowing secure, instant transactions.

2024 will see further progress on the Dash Platform introducing new developer tools and features designed to support decentralized applications hosting. For masternode operators, Dash offers strong consistent returns and a long track record as a stable passive income opportunity.

Market Capitalization: $380 million
Current Price: $34
Collateral Requirement: 1000 DASH (~$34,000)
Annual ROI: 6-8%
Total Masternodes: 3,040

Syscoin

Launched in 2014, Syscoin combines Bitcoin’s PoW security and fungibility, Ethereum’s smart contracts and EVM compatibility, and ZK-Rollup scalability and privacy. This unique dual-chain architecture with Ordinal and Z-DAG technology empowers developers to build powerful decentralized applications and explore Web3’s vast potential. The blockchain project differentiates itself through speed, security, and low transaction fees.

Syscoin has a dynamic masternode reward structure that incentivizes operators to keep their nodes running for longer periods. It offers a tiered seniority model comprising 0 seniority, 1-year seniority, and 2.5 years seniority.

Market Capitalization: $95 million
Current Price: $0.129
Collateral Requirement: 100,000 SYS (~$13,000)
Annual ROI: 6.1%
Total Masternodes: 2,775

Divi

Divi stands out by allowing masternode deployment in a single click. Users can opt to run multiple lower-tier masternodes to boost earnings as opposed to a single top-tier node. The MOCCI protocol also facilitates the usage of multiple blockchains for faster transaction clearance.

There are five-tiered entry points for potential masternode operators within the Divi network. Earning DIVI at each level improves linearly with the number of coins. For example, the Silver Divi Node has five times more opportunities to earn coins than Copper.

Divi’s future roadmap includes work on Divi sidechain and sidechain dev tools, templates, and smart contracts.

Market Capitalization: $11 million
Current Price: $0.0032
Collateral Requirement: 100,000 DIVI (Copper), 300,000 DIVI (Silver), 1,000,000 DIVI (Gold), 3,000,000 DIVI (Platinum), and 10,000,000 DIVI (Diamond)
Annual ROI: NIL
Total Masternodes: NIL

PIVX

Building on Dash’s foundations in 2017, PIVX (Private Instant Verified Transactions) enhances privacy aspects further and runs an even larger masternode network with over 1,500 nodes each staking 10,000 PIVX (around $30,000).

PIVX pioneered innovations like zDEX for private swaps, and masternodes earn highly competitive yields of 15-20% yearly. PIVX’s growing ecosystem of apps leveraging its reliable underlying masternode infrastructure cement its status as a core staking asset.

Market Capitalization: $26 million
Current Price: $0.33
Collateral Requirement: 10,000 PIVX ($3,300)
Annual ROI: 18.71%
Total Masternodes: 1,686

Firo

Originally launched in 2016 as Zcoin, Firo rebranded in 2020 as an improved privacy network combining masternodes called Service Nodes with features like Lelantus for advanced coin anonymization.

Over 4,000 masternodes stake 1,000 FIRO each to earn consistent 15% yields for ensuring lightweight blockchain integrity. As crypto privacy needs grow, Firo’s positioning supports sustainable masternode returns.

Market Capitalization: $27 million
Current Price: $1.93
Collateral Requirement: 1,000 FIRO ($1,900)
Annual ROI: 15.11%
Total Masternodes: 4,374

DeFiChain

Aiming to bridge decentralized finance with Bitcoin-level security, DeFiChain relies on masternodes heavily to enable transitional services like decentralized trading and lending to the crypto ecosystem.

Over 150 masternodes providing DeFiChain services and transaction validation require staking 50,000 DFI currently worth almost $60,000. In turn, these core members earn governance power and 25%+ yearly yields to provide liquidity for the bridge toward an interoperable DeFi future.

Market Capitalization: $110 million
Current Price: $0.132
Collateral Requirement: 20,000 DFI ($2,640)
Annual ROI: 11%
Total Masternodes: 17,192

Horizen

Supporting privacy-centric solutions since 2017, Horizen offers a mix of masternodes and staking to secure its ZenCash blockchain-underpinning apps like chat and decentralized finance spanning the public and private sectors.

Horizen’s secure and super nodes lock up amounts from 42 ZEN to 500 ZEN and earning yields from 15-25% on average by ensuring strong network activity and integrations. As blockchain interoperability needs rise across financial services like banking, Horizen promises growing utility.

Market Capitalization: $148 million
Current Price: $10
Collateral Requirement: 42 ZEN ($420) and 500 ZEN ($5,000)
Annual ROI: 5.7 – 8.1%
Total Masternodes: 40,000+

Conclusion

While often viewed solely as investment portfolio diversification, running masternodes on promising crypto networks represents a means of participating in blockchain infrastructure. As outlined above, over a dozen projects across various specialties offer yield-earning opportunities to make passive income while supporting the development of the greater cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Through a combination of maturing security protocols, passionate communities, transparent incentivization structures, and commitment to real-world use case growth rather than speculation, this list swaths some of the most compelling cryptos to consider for masternode returns entering 2024.