What a witness role and duties are.
This is a recurrent question, and there are many misconceptions about witnessing, i want to take this opportunity to try and consolidate all the answers i have been writting scattered in different posts:
Source: US News & World Report
Basically a witness is recruited by the calling: you have a project, you have a goal, you set yourself objectives within steemit and then you get yourself a server and start by providing backup infrastructure to the network.
Little by little you get witness votes that make you go up in the ladder.
Witness vote don't cost anything to the users and each user has the right to choose 30 witnesses.
The weight of the vote is determined by how much STEEM the voter posses.
The first 20 Witnesses make most of the blocks for the blockchian, and are the ones that decide whether a hard-fork is applied, set the interest rate to help keep the SBD pegged to the USD, and have in many cases very especialized roles, like user base growth, network infrastructure, economics, support to new users etc.
from 21 to 50 those witnesses act as backup nodes for the first 20 in case there is a problem and the servers miss a block. They dont have a say in the future or present.
From 51 to 100 is like the backup of the backup.
Above 101 not much happens, see i am 113 (and growing :) ) and have make 2 blocks in about 1 month.
However we are useful because we have a full backup of the block-chain and the more backups the better, and as our projects get to be known and established I hope to obtain support to complete them.
It is a little like being a people's representative and there are many roles apart from the network to have in consideration.
It is important to choose well your witnesses because as with politicians their decisions will impact your experience on the site.
Some examples:
- spend 70$ per month on a real server in a Data Center to provide infrastructure for STEEMit.
- spend another 60$ Month to provide a web server for services.
- Invest in STEEM
- spend between 16 and 20 hours per day exploring the blockchain making tools or helping users.
- write long and thoughtful posts addressed to new users explaining the workings of steemit
- support a minnow give away contests while trying to make them better by asking to add value .
- try to help other steemians with real problems.
- Maybe do forensics and find this kind of stuff.
Use the blockchain money to empower people outside in the real world like #youarehope is doing.
Remove the elite posting rewards allowing a chance for everyone to increase adoption and retention and educate new users.
External actions that are possible: I'm running a 100 + telegram channel guiding people from Venezuela to join.
That's so helpful @nnnarvaez, I have always wondered what is the witness for. Another thing I need some guidance about is proxy. What is it for actually? Resteemed and upvoted. See you around!
Thanks for you comment.
Well a proxy is when you choose someone to vote on your behalf.
Basically your user will vote for the same witnesses as the Proxiee votes.
You should only do that if you know and trust the person as you are giving him the right to choose for you.
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Thanks for the post @nnnarvaez! Helping us minnows understanding witnesses and their services is a great post! I would also like to thank you, as a witness, for your help in the community :)
Thanks @dolladu, not only me i'm just a small fish we are many working at different levels.
I put together this post very quickly, but i'll make second part before there are many things left out about the responsibilities and roles.
Security, infrastructure, user growth it is a whole new level of working in steemit, really interesting and even thou is time consuming the moral rewards are enormous.
Hi @nnnarvaez, we visit you with our tinnie winnie upvote and give your our "seal of awesomeness" as you have been determined by a human @nnnarvaez, to be gifted.
Welcome to the #untalented family, where everyone is seen as possessing of rare gem
This post has been ranked within the top 80 most undervalued posts in the first half of Oct 27. We estimate that this post is undervalued by $10.07 as compared to a scenario in which every voter had an equal say.
See the full rankings and details in The Daily Tribune: Oct 27 - Part I. You can also read about some of our methodology, data analysis and technical details in our initial post.
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Me parece muy bien todo esto y estoy de acuerdo en casi todo, aunque para ser sincera conozco muy poco del asunto y hubo algunos detalles que no los entendí plenamente. En apoyo a lo anterior, me gustaría leerlo en español y más explicadito, te parece bien? Lindo "Witness dedicado a la comunidad que habla #castellano". Disculpa el abuso de confianza y encantada de conocerte.
Hola siento el sarcasmo, jajaja
Como witness tengo que comunicar a la comunidad en castellano y tengo que comunicar en ingles para tratar de obtener apoyo
Ademas sabemos bien que nuestro idioma no paga bien y tengo que hacer algunas publicaciones en ingles para recuperar los costos de los servicodres y todo lo demas.
Aca te dejo un articulo que publice hace dias que es lo mismo pero en español. y tiene un par de enlaces a donde encontraras mas informacion
PS: @reveur es la cuenta de mi projecto que en general debe estar en español, mi cuenta personal es mezcladita
https://steemit.com/castellano/@reveur/preguntame-cuanto-gana-un-witness
Si tienes alguna duda pregunta! te respondere gustoso
I heard it was possible to remove my witnesses
And to choose witnesses in my own way.
Is this information correct ?? And how
What do you mean remove your witnesses?
Witnesses are people that provide machines to store the blockchain.
We also try to build tools and create communities and you can choose to support with your vote up to 30 of us.
You should vote for those you believe are building what is needed.
And in that sense you choose the witnesses that represent you in your own way.
Unless you setup a witness proxy vote in this page: https://steemit.com/~witnesses you are free to choose.
If you don't see their name on the list, at the bottom of the page is a searchbox where you put the name and then hit vote, it will ask you for the active key (refresh the page and their name should appear under the search box and then you have voted for them.
I checked and you are not voting for any witness nor proxied
The fact I'm trying to understand their job
Because I am new in those things
Do you have any questions from my article?
Our main role is to provide network infrastructure, and build services and some also care about the users and help build communities
A witness provides a node for the blockchain, so it is reliable, that is the minimum requirement to become one.
To become a successful one then one needs to work building for the users.
Actually
Now I can tell you that I did not understand anything
I need more knowledge about
Witness and what to submit to me ?? And a lot of questions
A witness is a person who helps maintain STEEM provides a server and helps in many ways.
It is like a congressman and also gives a server
Is he a member with us and helps us or is an imaginary member does not exist
How do I know my personal assistant?
I am a witness :) I am not imaginary.
It is not your personal assistant, it is a person who believes this platform is good and invest time and money to make it grow.
I provide a server for it, and i try to help south american users.
There are many of us and you can vote for us to help us help (we don't get paid unless people votes for us, it is like we get paid for our work if people likes what we do)