The Actifit Series: Actifit witness & Increased Charity Support (Episode 16)

Repository

https://github.com/mcfarhat/actifit/

A. Introduction

You are new to the Steem blockchain, you go through the trending pages of the Steemit platform, I'm sure you'll come across the word witness before you are done. I'm really sure you would not know what it means to be a witness. You'd only know that one or two people on the trending page are asking members of the platform to vote for them as witnesses.

The question here therefore is "Who are witnesses and what are their roles as members of the Steem community? There are quite a number of ways to explain this and I'm not sure of where to start off from. However, it is important to note that witnesses of the Steem blockchain are very essential for the growth of the blockchain and the community existing on it.

In this post, we will look at what or who a witness is and the roles of these witnesses. We will also look at Actifit as a witness and what it portends for the decentralized app. I'll share my view on why I support Actifit's witness dream and why you should also. We will also look at what Actifit has been doing so far as regards to the support of charities. Let's get started.

B. What is Actifit?

Actifit is a platform built on the Steem blockchain with the aim of incentivizing both old and new members for engaging in fitness and health activities. The resulting step counts are read via the Actifit Android and iOS versions and users can post their daily report cards to the blockchain

For those who meet the minimum step count, Actifit upvotes their post and also rewards them with AFIT tokens. These are the ways users are incentivized for keeping fit and maintaining their health with Actifit.

C. Who are witnesses?

So in order not to make misleading post and thereby end up confusing you, I decided to carry out a little research on who a witness is. A search on the topic on the had me almost suffering an information overload as I noticed a lot of posts created on the Steem blockchain about the witness role.

Luckily, I found and decided to go with a post created by @someguy123 about 2 years ago. There, he made a simple yet in depth definition of who a witness is and what they do for the steem blockchain. I'll be lifting this definition of a witness from his post but I will link his original post in the resources section of this post as a way of giving credit to the author.

@Someguy123 defined a witness as

A person who operates a witness server (which produces blocks) and publishes a price feed of Steem / usd to the network.

Despite how simple this definition might look, and I am quite sure a number of users will still not understand what it means to be a witness. Let me try to explain further and let's hope that I do not end up confusing you the more.

Sure, the Steem blockchain is a decentralized platform which powers a number of content apps such as Steemit, Busy, Actifit, Utopian, and a host of others. For a platform to be decentralized means that there is no one person calling the shots at the centre. Thus, power here is not concentrated at the centre but distributed across several points.

However, for things to run properly and effectively, there still needs to be a kind of government making decisions on behalf of the people. Now, this is where witnesses come in. Witnesses are individuals like you and me who run what is called a witness server. Through the server, they're able to create blocks via a Delegated Proof of Stake mechanism (DPOS).

These people are elected through votes cast by the rest of us users of the platform. For each one of us, we are able to cast at least 30 votes for those we feel would be able to represent us properly and run their servers effectively. Each witness is expected to run a reliable node as well as maintain an accurate price feed. However, 67% of the Actifit witnesses will have to come to a consensus on any change to be made to the blockchain before it can be implemented. This they do by upgrading to the latest update of the witness server.

For now, I believe this is all we need to know as regards witnesses. Other things are just too technical and would need more than a layman's understanding to get the full gist. Let's now talk about Actifit as a witness and what it's portends for the dApp and its users.

D. Actifit as a witness

Since Actifit came into existence, I have been a great follower of the dApp snd equally a moderator on the platform. However, work related issues did not allow me continue as a moderator. Thus it was not hard to see why I was pleasantly surprised when Actifit announced its intention to run for witness.

It is my belief that this is a great move for Actifit. For me, Actifit remains one of the most active dApps on the Steem blockchain, even its name implies so. There's hardly any day Actifit does not post an update from its official handle.

Also, Actifit has seen its user base go from a paltry count from when it began to no less than 600 in just about 6 months of its existence on the blockchain. In the same vein, Actifit has gone on to pool over 200k delegated Steem power from its teeming users and fans. This has shown that the Actifit project is truly loved by a lot of users.

Now, what more do we need than for an active project such as this to be one of our top witnesses? Truth be told, Actifit has done a lot in terms of engaging users of the Steem blockchain and helping them live healthier lives. This they are able to achieve through engaging in fitness and health activities with the help of the Actifit app.

It doesn't end just at that. Actifit also rewards its users for engaging in these health and fitness activities. These rewards are financial ones that come in the form of AFIT tokens and Steem and SBD coins. For a dApp that does as much as this for users of the blockchain, it is only crucial that they are voted in as representatives at the witness level.

This is also a call for users of the Steem blockchain to support all the apps and individuals who have contributed or played a great role in pushing the Steem blockchain to the next level. SMTs are the future of the Steem blockchain so it is only important that majority of them occupy the top spots at the witness category.

Since Actifit announced its intention to become a witness, a lot has been achieved within the space of less than a month. Climbing from a witness position of about 134, Actifit has now gotten to position 48 on the witness category. I believe that very soon, Actifit will end up climbing to the top 20 witnesses at the witness category.

E. Why I support Actifit's witness vision

When voting in a presidential election, people tend to vote only for those candidates whose dreams, plans, and aspirations resonates with what they want. Actifit does just about everything right and I'm proud to have known the dApp at its early stage.

If you feel that active is capable of representing you properly at witness level, then please endeavour to cast a vote for it. It will surely help it increase its support for us as well as for charities.

F. Increased support for charity

Talking about charities, Actifit has now increased the number of charities it supports. Before now, they were only 5 charities supported in Actifit's android and iOS apps. The new charity added is the Steemchurch. Now, you can choose the Steemchurch when donating part of your rewards to the available charities on the Actifit platforms.

G. Conclusion

Being a witness isn't an easy task but when you're qualified to be a witness, it's only pertinent that those you support and who share the same dream with you votes for you. Actifit has shown its capability in little things. Now is the time for them to do even more. I hope you give them that opportunity with your votes.

Hope to see you on the next episode of the series. Have a wonderful weekend ahead.

Cheers!!

I remain your favorite dApps presenter,
_{@curtwriter
Chat with us on discord | Visit our website
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References

A. Seriously, what is a STEEM witness? Why should I care? How do I become one? (Answer)
B. https://steemit.com/actifit/@actifit/actifit-daily-47-102k-thank-you-to-delegators-sponsored-competition-rewarded-top-actifitters
C. Other pictures were screenshots from my device.

Series Backlinks

• Project Promotion: All You Need to Know About Actifit, The New Fitness App on The Blockchain!!
• The Actifit Series - Actifit Development Updates V0.1 - V0.3 [Episode 2]
• The Actifit Series - Actifit Development Update V.0.3.1 And other Updates [Episode 3]
• The Actifit Series - Decommissioned Versions and Other Updates [Episode 4]
• The Actifit Website Explained (Episode 5)
• Actifit iOS version & other Developmental Updates (Episode 6)
• The Actifit Series: iOS App, New iOS version 0.3.3 and other updates (Episode 7)
• The Actifit Series - Aftermath of the HF20, Impact on Actifit and other updates (Episode 8)
• The Actifit Series: The Android V 0.3.4 Release [Episode 9]
• The Actifit Series: Actifit V2 Reward System And Other Updates (Episode 10)
• The Actifit Series: Automated Account Claims, Image Hosting Server & Other Updates (Episode 11)
• The Actifit Series: New Website features & other updates (Episode 12)
• The Actifit Series: The Actifit Android V 0.4.0 (Episode 13)
• The Actifit Series: Maximizing Actifit Tokens and other Updates (Episode 14)
• The Actifit Series: The New Delegation Beneficiary System (Episode 15)