I have been trying different amounts for the max split setting using this address: PSbEfgz1EVA5z2mNwwbiTftgPBzFjhY6p5
The latest amount I have been testing is a max split setting of 100.
Some observations...as we already know, reducing the max stake causes you to stake more often but with a smaller reward. The address above has about 81k worth of Potcoin but only about 6K is currently staked leaving the rest for new blocks or to be spent. The wallet anticipates a new stake every 6 minutes with the current difficulty of .0024.
When I was testing with a max split of 5K about 46k was staked with whatever the difficulty was at the time. We know that decreasing the max split will cause more stakes to occur but also increase the difficulty.
I think the time coins spend being "staked" is 8 hours before they are available again.
Thoughts?
It seems that making the value smaller would make the coin more usable. I brought up earlier that people looking to use the coin in a transaction can't stake their coins, missing out on possible interest. Having a smaller % of coins staked at any one time would help. Plus that's more staking, which should improve the network's health.
I don't know if its really necessary to make it user selectable. I think we should be able to come up with a reasonable value that works well, at least for now while the network is small.
One side effect of staking too often is an increase in the size of your wallet file. Have gone back to using the 5k version as that is currently staking every hour or so (with the current difficulty) vs every 6 minutes. I noticed the difficulty go way down by doing so....from .0021 to .0011.
The default wallet stakes a few times a day (2-3 I think) due to all your coins being used up (if you have under 2 million) and the 8 hours to maturity. I am considering going back to using that as I personally don't need to be staking that often. Yes it will reduce the difficulty but we should still see close to 40 second block times.