Warning to notary node operators
If you are thinking about setting up a notary node, there are some financial risks involved. There are two issues, 1) no one can guarantee you will get elected, 2) the final notary node number depends on our budget
We will setup 32, 49, or 64 notary nodes, depending on how much money we raise. As jl777 has explained before, 5000 BTC would allow us to setup the full 64 notary nodes.
The development team is very grateful for those who have invested their own money and time in notary node testing. Those who have actively participated in testing will receive a substitute for their efforts if they for some reason wouldn't get elected. This promise doesn't cover those who are just now setting up their notary nodes or planning to do so. If you are spending considerable amount of money, please understand that there is a risk that you won't get elected.
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We are planning to add a field for percentage of subsidy required. That means that each notary node candidate can decide how much guaranteed subsidy they require per node. This is expected to bring down our costs on areas where it is cheaper to run a node.
The vote is what counts though, so a candidate with no subsidy requirements could still not get elected. As a voter you should also consider the candidates technical skills and the hardware specs.
Because some node operators won't require $500/month subsidy the average subsidy amount will be lower than $500/month. Thus we need to reserve less capital for the 10 year buffer.
This thing is probably only relevant for the EU region, where we currently have more notary node candidates than there are spots (even with 64 notary nodes). Also the server costs are a lot lower in EU than they are in other parts of the world. We expect the subsidy to stay around 100% at the other parts of the world. The choice is made by the notary node candidates who set up that percentage (0 - 100 %) and the voters who elect the candidates.
We certainly hope that we can setup all 64 notary nodes. We are working hard to raise the remaining funds during the last week.
How the elections will happen
When you redeem your KMD after the ICO, you will have to vote. In other words the first voting process is embedded to our ICO. After we know our notary nodes and they are running, the network will officially launch and we distribute the coins. There will be enough time reserved for the voting, that even the BTCD investors get a change to do the swap and vote.
The next elections
If you have paid attention, you have noticed that we haven't talked about the other elections at all... that is because the election process beyond the initial one is still wide open.
We won't make any decision until later, as this is not the development priority. However we have speculated about different possibilities, and the most prominent one is to have periodical elections where some of the candidates are voted out for a re-election. This would drop out the bottom performers and incentivise the notary nodes to perform.
If you are thinking about setting up a notary node, there are some financial risks involved. There are two issues, 1) no one can guarantee you will get elected, 2) the final notary node number depends on our budget
We will setup 32, 49, or 64 notary nodes, depending on how much money we raise. As jl777 has explained before, 5000 BTC would allow us to setup the full 64 notary nodes.
The development team is very grateful for those who have invested their own money and time in notary node testing. Those who have actively participated in testing will receive a substitute for their efforts if they for some reason wouldn't get elected. This promise doesn't cover those who are just now setting up their notary nodes or planning to do so. If you are spending considerable amount of money, please understand that there is a risk that you won't get elected.
***
We are planning to add a field for percentage of subsidy required. That means that each notary node candidate can decide how much guaranteed subsidy they require per node. This is expected to bring down our costs on areas where it is cheaper to run a node.
The vote is what counts though, so a candidate with no subsidy requirements could still not get elected. As a voter you should also consider the candidates technical skills and the hardware specs.
Because some node operators won't require $500/month subsidy the average subsidy amount will be lower than $500/month. Thus we need to reserve less capital for the 10 year buffer.
This thing is probably only relevant for the EU region, where we currently have more notary node candidates than there are spots (even with 64 notary nodes). Also the server costs are a lot lower in EU than they are in other parts of the world. We expect the subsidy to stay around 100% at the other parts of the world. The choice is made by the notary node candidates who set up that percentage (0 - 100 %) and the voters who elect the candidates.
We certainly hope that we can setup all 64 notary nodes. We are working hard to raise the remaining funds during the last week.
How the elections will happen
When you redeem your KMD after the ICO, you will have to vote. In other words the first voting process is embedded to our ICO. After we know our notary nodes and they are running, the network will officially launch and we distribute the coins. There will be enough time reserved for the voting, that even the BTCD investors get a change to do the swap and vote.
The next elections
If you have paid attention, you have noticed that we haven't talked about the other elections at all... that is because the election process beyond the initial one is still wide open.
We won't make any decision until later, as this is not the development priority. However we have speculated about different possibilities, and the most prominent one is to have periodical elections where some of the candidates are voted out for a re-election. This would drop out the bottom performers and incentivise the notary nodes to perform.
The sensible thing to do is not setup an expensive node until AFTER the election
I will support when windows wallet will be. 
