If you measure it in crypto then you can't call it ROI.

Your "invested capital" is what you used to buy the Dash, not the Dash itself. I realise that may seem a small an insignificant distinction to some but it isn't, it's huge, because it makes the difference between prioritising earnings or capital gains.

My argument is that we need to target capital gains because one of the criteria for running a masternode (as opposed to, say mining) is that you have to post a large amount of collateral which means that capital gains are actually far more important to you than earning as soon as the exchange rate moves more than 6% either way. Miners meanwhile are a business. It's a very different model. They're not investors in Dash, they're investors in mining equipment.

Calling the masternode reward "ROI" is therefore a misnomer. It is not a 6% "return" on anything. It's just 6% of the collateral but that's not what you invested, it's what you purchased WITH your investment.

Let us examine this in a quantified manner:



You can now see the distinction. ROI is only the same as masternode earnings (expressed as a percentage) in one case = the stablecoin case. But Dash is not a stablecoin so it doesn't apply.