A lot of time has passed since then and the mining rate has gone down from several coins per day to fragments of a coin per day. One way to currently increase your mining rate is to create what the creators call a Pi Node. The reward is constantly being tweaked and in the future they will determine what the reward will actually be, but currently it has rewarded me with increasing bonus rates of mining.
Just as mining Pi is free, running a node is virtually free as well. You need to have passed the KYC, which costs 1 Pi and you need a computer with internet that will be running. There will be something called a supernode as well, but they have a lot higher requirements of stability, essentially they are nodes for the nodes. This post will thus focus on how you get started with your regular node so that you can increase your mining rate. The content is based on the official information and my personal experience installing and running a Pi Network Node.
Getting started
Download the Pi app for the computer here. It contains the node software, unlike the app in the phone.
Fill in the application to run a node, the team will then see if you are a good candidate and select you.
Nodes are approved based on uptime, connection quality, contribution to the community and security circles.
You need to pass KYC (Know Your Customer).
When you are accepted you can download Docker, as the node requires it to run. You might have to enable virtualization on your intended computer, as it works similar to a virtual machine. I tried running it inside a VM but it didn't work as intended.
Making sure it is running properly
The first time you start the node it will take a while for it to catch up, as there is a lot of data in the blockchain that it needs to synchronize with. When I started mine it needed approximately 3 minutes to catch up. I was also running the optional API.
The Pi app becomes an autostart app automatically after installation, but make sure your Docker also starts automatically in your Windows settings. Inside your Docker program you can also see the containers running, you will see a play button next to the container. Press this if it has stopped.
If you lose power or internet, it can be a good idea to make sure your node is operational again. Normally I am running it on a headless server but I have a mini monitor attached just to make it easy to check regularly. In the future I will also consider getting a monitoring software, so that I can check the crucial services on a GUI from another computer.
If possible leave your node running constantly, on a separate device if need be. I noticed that my rewarded rate increased slightly day over day. It will be interesting to see if there is a cap to this, as the rate increase seemed to stagnate. At the time of publishing this post it has increased the reward for the four days that I have been running it, with updated values each new mining session. In other words, if there is an increase, you will notice it every time you start a new mining cycle.
Only run one node, only have one account, for your own safety. And finally, running a node will use CPU, memory, hard drive and network resources.