Welcome and thank you for reading my simple explanation of Witness System.

During my effort to convince a witness to get STEEM or SBD on a major exchange, I realize that many people that I need support from don't understand the witness system on STEEM. It is confusing and really needs a dedicated home page to explain it. For now all we have is people like myself to help out.

The witness thing is confusing and large majority don't vote. Questions people are afraid to ask are: Do the witness votes affect my voting power? Does it affect my earnings? Do I have to pay for this vote? How do I know which witness is the right witness to vote on?

Let me help you get to know the witness system on Steemit.

A witness is a person that runs a Node. A Node is like a server that supports the STEEM blockchain. Witnesses are rewarded from a different reward pool than we use. How much they are rewarded is based on the number of votes and how well they maintain their Node.

Whenever you make a transaction with STEEM currency, blog, or vote, you are adding information to the blockchain. It is important that these Nodes function to record that information into the blocks of the blockchain. The top witnesses are expected to keep their nodes running 24/7 and keep a price feed for STEEM and SBD. If they don't, they may lose votes from the Steemit community which would mean that they could fall out of the top positions and lose rewards.

How does that affect you?

• If you vote for witness, it doesn't affect you or your earnings.
• If you don't vote for witness, it doesn't affect you or your earnings.
  

So why do it?

• Your witness vote allows the witness to get paid for the equipment and operational cost of running a Node. It gives them a reason to do it. This way you are supporting the STEEM blockchain that Steemit runs on and allows the system to run smoothly.
• The top witnesses make decisions about the future of STEEM and Steemit. It is like a democracy where you vote for your leader.

Along with running nodes, some of these witnesses have developed apps, games, tools, paid for advertising, and other various things to promote Steemit and themselves as a leader.

Questions and Answers:

Question: How many witness votes do I have?
Answer: 30

Question: How long do I have to wait until I can vote again?
Answer: You can always change your witness vote. There is no wait to unvote or to change your vote to another witness.

Question:? Will voting for witness take away from my daily allotment of votes?
Answer: No

Question: Will voting for witness change how much rewards I get on Steemit?
Answer: No

Question: How do I know which witnesses to vote on?
Answer: Witnesses are voted on by their ability to keep the nodes operating, their popularity, and their achievements. Many have other projects to promote themselves. I am taking a different approach by creating a challenge for the Witnesses to accomplish to gain our votes.

My solution to convince the witnesses to work for us:

What I have done is give the witnesses a challenge to get STEEM or SBD on a major exchange. If they do that, they win the witness votes. This is a way that we can combine our votes to influence our leaders to accomplish goals that are important to us.

Why is getting STEEM on an exchange important?

The more exchanges STEEM and SBD are on, the more access people will have with more options and more supported languages. When this happens, STEEM can be adopted a major currency worldwide.

Here is how you vote:

To learn more about my challenge for a witness to get STEEM or SBD listed on a major exchange, follow this link: https://steemit.com/steemit/@socky/witness-reward-bounty-173-800-055-vests

I hope you enjoyed reading my Blog. Please remember to Upvote, Resteem, and Follow. Thank you.

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For a breakdown of how Steemit Rewards system works:

https://steemit.com/steemit/@socky/steemit-rewards-breakdown-a-simplified-explanation-with-illustrations