Some handy information for newcomers  

Masternode Payment schedule :

per mined block :

45% goes to masternodes
45% goes to miners
10% goes to decentralised budget system

Number of masternodes 18th of januari 2015 : 2034



Number of masternodes 3th of november 2015 : 3308
https://dashninja.pl/masternodes.html



Masternode Geographic Loactions Worldwide  
(edit: the dashnodes site that provides that graph got offline so i can't provide an accurate map containing all 3308 masternodes)



Note : The dips in the graphs are related to Dash Updates (Masternode network updating)

Masternode current role :

The masternodes today have become even more important and also carry a lot more responsebility then before due to the
implementation of the decentralised budget system. The masternode owners essentially received voting power over
Dash's decentralised budget proposals.

Its a very flexible system where masternode owners can vote yes or no to any budget proposal to either get it accepted
or denied of blockchain funding. If a masternode owner first voted yes and it turns out the budget proposal does not work
as intended or is lacking results the masternode owner can then vote no and with enough no votes the budget proposal
disappears from the funded budget list.

https://www.dashwhale.org/budget
https://dashninja.pl/budgets.html