Have You Voted For a Witness? Why Should You Even Care?
Whether you are new to steemit or not, you've undoubtedly heard the term "witness" thrown around. If you're like I was 6 months ago you're thinking what the heck is a witness? You may be thinking....
Or...You may be thinking you're being watched...
It is obviously neither one of those, although witnesses are definitely keeping their eye on things (or should be) and are important for our platforms future. To be a witness you must have delegated proof of stake.
First off, let's break that down. What is proof of stake?
It is exactly what is sounds like. Proof you own steem and are investing into the platform. Clearly we all know the higher that stake is, the better for both the account owner success but also their influence within the community.
Then we have delegated proof of stake - these are your witnesses who have been delegated power via your vote. They are the Steemit platforms block producers. This works well because you have individuals who have a genuine (staked) interest in the platform working on every block.
You may be thinking, so how does that help me?? Why should I care?? Witnesses are our miners basically and 90% of production goes back to us - the content creators, the bloggers, the curators!
There are 20 full time witnesses & a 21st shared backup witness based of stake weighted communal approval.
You can vote for up to 30 witnesses. Simply click (or tap) the menu by your avatar in the upper right corner. Then select....
If your witness selection isn't in the top 50, no worries. You can search for them.
So that is a very, very rudimentary intro into what witnesses are, what they do, & why you should care. Disclaimer: I am NOT an expert on this or the "tech side" of things. Anyone is welcome & encouraged to chime in with additional info, corrections, clarifications, general comments, etc!!
Images 1,2,3 Google images
Images 4,5 my edited screenshots
I've voted for a couple who seem to be positive people, are like minded on a few issues, and are consistently active users.
A Very good steem- citizen you are!
Lol, I try. I do care about the platform and I have concerns about some things so I'd love to see some positive changes. If I had any clue how to run a server, I might be tempted to try to be a witness myself.
I hear you! I want to see the gap become more bridged between the tech side and the social media side
I would love that too!
Great minds
It's actually not all that difficult to make it happen. I'm a witness and I'm really not that much of a tech guy. However, the thing to keep in mind is that, to actually run a successful node, you need to have powerful enough hardware to process blocks. This usually isn't going to be free, so there's some cost involved. Just something to keep in mind :)
I have a pretty powerful laptop....
Nice infomation! I voted for @Good-Karma a few months ago, he's awesome, especially with the esteem app! I have 29 votes left though, lol!! I shall start seeing who else I should vote for. :-)
Thanks. Yes you should use your other votes
Voted for some peeps whose names I recognized. Thanks for sharing, I didn't know how to actually go vote for people.
Glad this could help you and glad you voted
upvoted
Nice post, Important info!
Thank @chelsea88
On the golos.io I tried to organize a witnesses marathon))
Flashmob, in which participants will tell about the witnesses which they support, and why
No one has joined on the my contest :)))
That is a good initiative to get people to tell you why
I just made some changes on my witness votes this morning after recent events I just caught up with
Yeah i noticed you could change it
👍😎👍
Have a great day
Good info, nice job!!
Thanks. I felt it might be a bit to "basic" but just wanted to raise awareness that steemians should at least know what a witness is and why care.... so many do not something like 96% don't