@jackmiller Answering Questions About My Witness

jackmiller (66)in #freedom • 5 years ago

I guess this post is now overdue, in that there are many people asking all sorts of questions about Steem, the fork (Hive) and many other topics too, mostly related to the future.

I have stated earlier that as an individual I have no intentions of turning my back on the people that have been a part of my life via Steem over the past 3 years. No money on this earth can ever replace a person in ones life and to just turn my back on all those people who have meant a lot to me as an individual would in my eyes be outright WRONG.

There are those who wish to continue on with the ideas and dreams that many of us agreed upon, some wish to do that via Hive, others wish to do that via Steem, some even believe that they will be able to do so on both chains.
I am not going to judge any persons decisions to keep supporting the ideas and dreams we had no matter what path they may take.

Saving Steem from a centralized entity was and still is well overdue. So to all those that wish to continue on with that painfully stressful endeavour I wish all the power and patience needed for that task. Personally, I am opting for the path in which that centralized authoritarian power is gone from the word “GO”.

Now, many may argue for or against either option, that is fully understandable. Many people have openly stated that they shall utilize both chains. All the power to them.

I am not advising anyone to do anything that they do not feel comfortable with, in fact it is with great pleasure that I can see a lot of hope and a sparkle of joy in what people are attempting to do with Hive. To go the route that should have been taken back in 2016 or any time from then to 2020 is definitely a less stressful path. We are now in a position where people have options and no matter what any unique individual among us chooses to do, it should be supported by all of us.

As stated, the first and foremost priority are the people who helped make things happen, no matter if it be those adding content to the chain, those trading tokens that are on the chain, those marketing the chain, those adding tools and other options to the chain. Everyone contributes in their own way and each contribution is meaningful and adds value to the chains.

While in all this I chose the route of outright and direct change. Ensuring that all the work done to date is saved, hence fulfilling my primary duty as a Witness:

To ensure the existential security of the blockchain.

My plans are to keep marching forwards with the ideals that I had from back in 2017.
Some of which are:

To promote the concept of freedom of speech, expression and good will.
Lobby for Transparent, Open and Public policy making procedures (TOP-Politics).
To lobby for changes that help ensure equality of opportunity.
To lobby for the further decentralization of the chain and use cases for it.
To stand up for the individual as unique human beings as the core foundation to decentralization.
To keep promoting the idea that our ecosystem can help each individual build a private business through their contributions and not allow for a “pyramid scheme” type of ecosystem to grow out of it all. As what has happened to almost all the blockchains that have been around for years. I shall always stand in the way of turning us into a copy paste of the “fiat world”.
And to add one more core thing that I feel is crucial and important enough to put into this short list:
To keep looking for ways to rationally decentralize the governance of the chain.

There are many other things that I could add, but these are the core things that I as an individual shall keep as my “foundation” to what I do. Even if I make a mistake along the way, as long as I return to these, I sincerely believe that all will be good at the end of the day (in the long run).

As to the question put forwards to me about running a witness campaign on both Steem and Hive.
I did put a lot of thought into that and my conclusion is the following:

As the two chains are now separate and in many ways in competition with each other (in a business sense of the matter) I feel that it could put me into a position that evokes a ‘conflict of interests’.

Now, as much as I would like to support the efforts of decentralizing Steem, there is the undeniable fact that we have the business element to consider and as it could be detrimental to sit on two committee boards of two companies, so too do I see this applicable to running a witness campaign (governance member) on both chains.

This was my stand in the past too, when EOS was in question. It became clear to me that my stance on the matter was 100% correct as we saw EOS being built up by many people who were Steem witnesses and who were in the Steem governance (top 20 witnesses) who devoted their time, knowledge and work into building EOS while putting Steem in second place.

My question on that still stands:

“Imagine if those people had put all that same effort and time into Steem?”

Hence, no matter what anyone may think, my arguments for my stand and decision to stand by it are definitely sound and provable.

Again, others may think or believe otherwise, I won’t “judge them” for it, but I will make it known where I stand on the topic and put forwards my arguments along with the undeniable evidence backing my stance from our experiences with EOS.

Will I be active on both chains?

Well, idk yet, my current position is that I personally do not see anything wrong with corssposting, however, I do admit that censorship is not something I support. So to be totally up front with the thoughts bouncing around in my head, I may be simply posting on one chain and then crossposting the links with an intro. However, don’t hold me to that, as I too am trying to balance my own opinions with my own wishes to be a part of the lives and online presence that some of my fellow Steemians may continue on with. Give it some time, let’s see what the future has in stall for us, I may have a better answer on this topic in future.

What about the projects and business ventures started or planned?

Well, some of the projects that I had going on Steem are closed down, I have left steemdel.com up and running, for those wishing to delegate or undelegated Steempower. The only reason I have not closed that site down is because it is a user friendly means for people to do a delegation via Steemconnect (safe and secure).

The site has been used more in the past days than in the past months, so I will leave it up, till the dust settles. No point in removing something that people are using.

FULLALT as a business venture is moving forwards. No stopping that. @fullalt (https://www.fullalt.com ).

The AltYes browser extension is being adjusted to serve both chains, as the goal is to make sharing and incorporation of blockchain tech user friendly to all people out there. Particularly for those of us who are already on Steem and Hive.

The Android App is also in the initial testing phase, so that should be out soon for public use, likewise incorporating the needs of our community members on Hive and Steem. Our friends and all those who have been a part of our lives over the past four years.

Plans are to expand our range of tools out there and help further decentralize the use of our chains via diversification. But we’ll get to them as they get ready for release.

The current tools in the series of “AltYes” were originally for Steem and as such will incorporate the needs of the people. As many Steemians have clearly stated that they intend on using both chains, then we need to accommodate for these needs, no matter what our personal choices may be. Like I made clear earlier, “People are and always will be priority #1”.

Future Projects:

Over the past three years there were a number of potential projects that I personally looked into, however, to be totally up front about it, the fact that SMTs never came about, was one big thing that stopped me from moving forwards with them. Not so much the SMTs themselves, but the empty promises from those who kept announcing them. We all know that feeling!

However, now that future progress of Hive is not dependent on any one entity, but rather on all us voters of the governance, aka “community”, I see the possibility to be noticed fairly and not be ignored or swamped down to the bottom of the list due to some “popularity contests” etc.

The fact that this is now a potential change in the way we approach things on Hive, has given me a dose of will power to consider moving forwards with the to date investments made into the market research.

I sincerely believe that no matter if someone is a whale, dolphin or minnow, there will be fair opportunity to present project ideas without the to date practice in which those posts from small fish in the ocean are left unseen while only those from the big fish are seen all over the front pages of all front ends.

One thing that I mentioned earlier is that “Equal opportunity” needs to be a thing and for that to happen, there needs to be a means of ensuring “equal visibility” for projects and programs out there.

The outcomes may still be somewhat based on “popularity contests”, but as time goes on with the approach of “equal opportunity” and “equal visibility” (yet to be assured) we will see the “popularity contest” leftovers from the previous practices die out eventually and be a thing of the past.

Fingers crossed.

So basically, what I see possible now, was not possible before and to make this possible we all need to pitch in and be rational in our thinking. Putting “personal greed” aside and put the good of the future for our chain in first place.

What about my earnings from the witness node?

Well, that is all relevant to how many people vote for me. Everyone currently has the ability to vote for numerous witnesses, if that number is enough to get me up in the ranks to where I was prior to all this ruckus on Steem, hopefully my server will be “earning” something.

So far in the past three years, I have purchased a lot of Steem and handed out a whole bunch too. From various donations, sponsorships etc etc etc.

From here onward, if there are any earnings from my server, they will be used for the projects I am a part of. So that way I know that the earnings are being reinvested back into what is being done on and for the chain.

Here is a screenshot of my Steemitboard and if anyone does their homework, they will find that with all the Steem I had, I could have been a mini whale by now, so there is no need for me to talk about it, as it is all on the chain.

steemitboard 23032020.png

Hopefully my new very focused approach to how I handle/manage my crypto on the chain and from the chain will bring about better results in the long run.

Witness voting:

I touched on it earlier, when I mentioned “diversification”.

One thing that we have learned from the past is that the governance of an entire ecosystem which is made up so many different factors requires a lot of different aspects to be covered.

When talking about the obvious things, the governance must include reliable nodes. Now, that can be interpreted in many ways, one of which is why I pay for my server yearly, in advance. We can’t have people quitting in the middle of the game, we need reliable firm characters in our witness scene who are in it for the long haul.

Likewise, there is the business and marketing and social and community and overall economical factors that need to be covered.

Now, this may or may not be to the liking of some, but I am merely stating what I have been preaching for the past three years. Our ecosystem is a lot more than just servers and as such will succeed or fail based on how well we cover the requirements of all those very important factors.

Diversity is the key to success in any decentralized model of governance. That is my straight forwards conclusion. Clearly based on what we have seen in all other blockchains out there, in particular those that we know a little more about, such as Steem and EOS.

So we can use examples and experiences from the past to ensure we don’t keep repeating the same old steps that lead to the same old unsuccessful results.

Currently, due to the ruckus that went on in the past weeks, on Steem, we all took action and voted for the top 30 (or top20) witnesses prior to the hostile takeover. This saw the existing top20 witnesses jump from 50,000/80,000 MV to over 160,000 MV. This was migrated to Hive.

We are literally “centralized” again because of it. So it is up to each and every one of us to decentralize our governance on Hive.

Our votes do matter and we do not want to create the same situation we had on Steem over the past years.
For that to happen, we need to diversify out witness votes, so as to ensure all witnesses are dependent on the peoples votes and not in a position that allows for any witness to ignore the voters.

I too will be reviewing my votes on Hive this week so as to comply to the new requirements and to help decentralize our governance on Hive.

Guess I could sum it up with the following:

Governance should serve all the goals of decentralization and the needs of the entire ecosystem with all its diversity. No “popularity contest” should be applied to the logic behind it. We don’t want to be a copy/paste of the fiat world!

For those who wish to support me in my witness campaign, you can do so by giving me a vote.
You can do this on Peakd or via Hivesigner (the Steemconnect of Hive).

Here is the link for Hivesigner:
https://hivesigner.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=jackmiller&approve=1

Note:

For those who are still voting on my Steem witness, please unvote me and use that vote wisely.
The above link is exclusively for Hive.

I guess this is pretty much a look at many if not most of the things people have asked me about in the past days. Will keep everyone up to date with anything relevant that may be thrown my way.

For now, I thank everyone who has made all this possible and who have contributed to everything that all of us have been building over the past four years, which I have been a part of for three years.

Look forward to not just 3, but 33 more years of being a part of Hive!

Yours truly
@jackmiller

Some relevant links:

My own blog/site: https://jackmiller.info/

Link to this post on my website: https://jackmiller.info/blogging/jackmiller-hive-witness-signing-in-to-answer-questions/

My Hive.blog: https://hive.blog/@jackmiller
My Peakd wall: https://peakd.com/@jackmiller
My Twitter wall: https://twitter.com/JackMillerOZ

& for those still on Steem:

My Steempeak wall: https://steempeak.com/@jackmiller
My wall on Steemit.com: https://steemit.com/@jackmiller

Hive links that you may want to check out:

All about Hive: https://hive.io/
Hive on Github: https://github.com/openhive-network
Witness list: https://hivekings.com/witnesses (by @drakos - Witness)

& JUST FOR LAUGHS

Read more:
HIVE Witness @jackmiller Signing In — Hive
I guess this post is now overdue, in that there are many people asking all sorts of questions about Steem, the fork… by jackmiller

Source: https://hive.blog

Yours truly,
@jackmiller