Most coin pages and master node overview pages are providing the raw returns and are based on long historical records – some goes as far back as 2-3 years! This is not accurate because:
Masternode rewards go down as more masternodes come online, similar to how mining gets harder as more miners come online;
Masternode rewards go down as part of a natural emission schedule, for example, see SINS rewards distribution schedule
It assume that it costs nothing to run a masternode, which is not true. Running a masternode involves hardware, service and human resources fees.
Therefore, we decided to take a more accurate approach: We are calculating the reward percentages resulting on exact data points to ensure you are effectively getting as closely as what you see on our website:
The fees that we collect: [See What are the fees for Rewards], so you can see the NET rewards right away. This is also the % you see on the website.
We calculate our return based on most recent data and not on years of past data which might give a misleading anticipation. Most of the overview pages (including the coin websites) are calculating based on years of past data. We are calculating and revising based on past 100 rewards (the last 10 rewards from 10 different nodes), so it reflects more current, more accurate rewards.
For some nodes the rewards are also correlated to price fluctuations; Prices may be dropping, but fixed costs (for running the node, etc.) stay the same, so this affects the rewards %. If the price of the coin increases, the fix costs are a smaller part and therefore result in higher rewards.