Bitshares: Increasing witness count & Introduction of witness vote degradation?

Hey,

In episode #173 of BeyondBitcoin (https://steemit.com/beyondbitcoin/@officialfuzzy/guest-signups-beyond-bitcoin-hangout-173-9-16-16-rsvp-to-friday-s-hangout-refer-projects-for-rewards) I raised the following questions:

• Should we increase the quantity of BTS witnesses?
• Should we introduce witness vote degradation?

In BTSX we had 101+ witnesses, now we have 27 witnesses in BTS. Currently, witnesses earn approx $200/month. If in the future BTS increases significantly in value these positions will be earning more. The reason why I ask if we should increase the witness count is primarily because of the current witnesses slow reaction to implement price feeds.

Why I ask if we should introduce witness vote degradation:

• Campaigning for these witnesses positions has become almost non existent at this point (no witnesses in beyondbitcoin hangouts asking for votes for example)
• The witness sub-forum has become a ghost town (witness channel on steemit isn't populated with BTS witness posts).
• Witnesses once voted in, unless their node degrades, are unlikely to be replaced by another prospective BTS witness. If we had voting degradation where after 'x' months your placed vote on a witness begins degrading over a period of 'y' months, we would see witnesses who actively campaign potentially becoming witnesses, replacing inactive BTS witnesses.
• Getting current witnesses to implement price feeds for new MPAs is quite difficult, I have been actively campaigning for witnesses to publish price feeds for the 'GRIDCOIN' MPA. After 2.5 months and 3 BeyondBitcoin hangout appearances only 2 witnesses have published price feeds for the GRIDCOIN MPA. New witnesses may be more likely to interact with the BTS community.
• By introducing voting degradation, we may increase regular participation in the voting system rather than a 'vote once and forget' mindset right now.

During episode #173, crypto.prometheus raised the issue of due to the current low network voting participation, perhaps an individual armed with $500k they could vote their own witnesses into power - whilst true, on the other hand if an attacker had significant funds they could likely convince an active witness to sell their account (since they only get $200/month, if someone comes along with $10k+ they may be very tempted to take the offer).

Thoughts? No official proposal has been created in the client, just an informal discussion at this point. Do you have better ideas to increase voting participation or witness community activity?

Don't forget your roots & post on bitsharestalk!

Best regards,
CM.