We’ve reached the middle of August

Things are still pretty quiet in the Witness sphere. There hasn’t been any new updates or release nor has it been any significant talk about changes to any settings like block size or registration fees.

What keeps being important, that I’m grading witnesses by, are:

• An up-to-date node
• Using community recommended settings (except APR and Price Bias)
• A witness URL
• Active and not missing too many blocks during the period

The following is my analysis of the Top 100 witness list. Based on information that is available on SteemD and SteemDB I here share my view of the list.

I’m a Proxy Voter for the Minnow Witness Project

I’m also a Proxy voter, which means that if you think all this to be complicated and too much to keep track of, you can vote for me as a Proxy voter. That means I will vote on your behalf. You can change this at any time. Read more on how to vote for a Proxy Voter.

My main view is to support new and upcoming witnesses that are doing a good job. At the end of this post, you can read my changes as a Proxy Voter.

Dead Witnesses and Outdated Versions

As usual, there is a bunch of dead witnesses. These are witnesses that have once campaigned and gain the trust of the community, but since then stopped their node or is disabled by the blockchain. A node that runs an outdated version (currently 0.19.0 and older) or misses more than 25 blocks is automatically disabled.

It’s important to not cast votes on witnesses that have no active node present. It takes power away from those that may run a stable node. If you are voting for any of the following witnesses, please consider changing the vote ASAP.

From the top, we have:

Place	Name	Vote Shares	Version
#30	@steempty	10.09%	0.19.1
#37	@witness.svk	8.14%	0.19.0
#39	@fyrst-witness	7.96%	0.19.0
#40	@aizensou	7.71%	0.19.0
#48	@steemed	5.51%	0.19.0
#58	@viva.witness	3.09%	0.19.1
#65	@cyrano.witness	2.02%	0.16.0
#66	@kushed	2.00%	0.16.1
#67	@bue	1.90%	0.19.0
#68	@nextgencrypto	1.72%	0.18.1
#70	@tdv.witness	1.08%	0.16.0
#71	@dantheman	1.08%	0.14.2
#72	@picokernel	1.03%	0.16.1
#74	@idnit	0.95%	0.19.0
#75	@bayareacoins	0.92%	0.19.0
#78	@team.apha	0.83%	0.19.0
#81	@bitcube	0.53%	0.13.0
#82	@hagie	0.47%	0.16.2
#83	@silversteem	0.43%	0.13.0
#84	@blackwidow	0.36%	0.16.0
#85	@steve-waslchot	0.35%	0.14.2
#86	@habbasteem	0.30%	0.14.2
#92	@moisesmcardona	0.22%	0.19.1
#93	@enki	0.22%	0.19.0
#94	@nexus-dev	0.21%	0.18.1
#96	@linoxis9	0.19%	0.14.2
#98	@nonlinearone	0.18%	0.16.0
#99	@royaltiffany	0.14%	0.16.0
#100	@dele-puppy	0.14%	0.14.2

Missing Witness URL

Part of being a witness is making sure that people know what your intentions are. What will you supply the network with, what is your skill and why would you be voted for contributing. Running a witness without supplying one will make it more difficult for users to understand the purpose.

The following witnesses without one are:

Place	Name	Vote Shares
#80	@liberosist	0.69%
#90	@blockchained	0.24%

Outdated Price feeds and Block sizes

An important part of being a witness is to keep up to date with the recent changes in the community. A while ago we were recommended to increase the block size of the node due to a bug that caused many new users unable to post. Since the release of 0.19.1, this is no longer an issue. A large block size today instead gives greater strain on the chain and can cause problems.

It’s also important to keep an up to date price feed since this is what constitutes the price for the internal exchange.

Worth noting is that the following is only set by the top 20 witnesses. But I think every witness should be prepared from the start and make sure these things are working correctly. It’s part of what a witness does

The following witnesses does not run the recommended 65,536 block size:

Place	Name	Vote Shares
#57	@neoxian	3.17%
#60	@jerrybanfield	2.73%
#75	@bayareacoins	0.92%
#77	@fubar-bdhr	0.85%
#90	@blockchained	0.24%
#95	@robertdurst10	0.20%
#97	@mckienziegary	0.18%

The following witnesses runs an outdated Price Feed

Place	Name	Price Age	Vote Shares
#30	@steempty	5 Days+	10.09%
#32	@steemychicken1	5 Days+	9.77%
#39	@fyrst-witness	1 Day+	7.96%
#40	@auzensou	2 Weeks+	7.71%
#41	@chainsquad	4 Months+	7.45%
#42	@complexring	2 Weeks+	7.39%
#44	@chitty	1 Day+	7.04%
#46	@krnel	3 Days+	6.14%
#48	@steemed	1 Day+	5.51%
#51	@masteryoda	3 Weeks+	3.88%
#53	@teamsteam	3 Weeks+	3.83%
#73	@proctologic	2 Weeks+	1.02%
#75	@bayareacoins	3 Weeksh+	0.92%
#87	@steemitboard	2 Weeks+	0.29%
#88	@yunkzilla	4 Days+	0.27%
#90	@blockchained	1 Week+	0.24%
#91	@personzzz	1 Day+	0.23%
#95	@robertdurst10	10 Days+	0.20%

APR Settings (Interest)

Another interesting aspect, but one that I do not base my approval of witnesses on, are the interest settings. Like the Price, Blocksize and Registration fee, this is also only set by the top 20 witnesses. But it may be a factor in the long run if you wish to vote on a witness that supports a higher interest or not.

If a witness is inactive, has an outdated price feed or other it will not be listed here

The following witnesses supports Interest on SBD:

Place	Name	APR
#3	@timcliff	0.5%
#6	@liondani	5%
#7	@pharesim	10%
#18	@clayop	2%
#23	@smooth.witness	0.1%
#27	@aggroed	0.01%
#35	@joseph	1%
#38	@bacchist	7%
#47	@au1netyb1	1%
#50	@netuso	2%
#54	@followbtcnews	3%
#55	@drakos	7%
#61	@sc-steemit	1.5%
#63	@dragosroua	1%
#74	@idnit	3%
#76	@swlker101	0.5%
#79	@reggaemuffin	0.1%

These are only statistical data. Everyone should read up on each witnesses to get more details about them to form their own judgement.

Current changes to Minnow Witness Project

Regarding my previous statements in the post, I’m voting on new and upcoming witnesses that do a good job. I’m always voting with all my votes, but if a new witness comes up at the bottom, I’m taking votes from the top of the list to give to the new one.

Anyone can use me as a proxy voter, read more on how to do that. My voting strategy is to vote from the bottom and upwards on the list, giving new members of the witness crew a good chance to get in. I go through the list at random times, at least once a month, and review the witnesses according to the criteria I've described above. Anyone running a stable, up to date, witness node on the bottom 50 list can practically count on a vote from me. I will take my vote from the witness at the top of the list to give to new ones at the bottom.

Please note that while I’m voting for myself (sc-steemit) I fully intend to stop doing so once I go over position 50. Until then my vote will remain

These are my votes on below 50 witnesses at the current time

Position	Witness	Note
#52	@agoric.systems	Added
#53	@teamsteem	Under observation due to price feed
#54	@followbtcnews	-
#55	@drakos	-
#56	@archange	-
#58	@viva.witness	Removed due to inactivity
#59	@steem-id	-
#61	@sc-steemit	-
#62	@blueorgy	-
#64	@felixxx	-
#69	@steemgigs	Added
#76	@swelker101	Added
#79	@reggaemuffin	-
#89	@adamm	-

The following witnesses where un-voted to give place for new witnesses

@liondani, @pheresum

Vote for me as Witness

Enjoying what I do and contribute to the community, please vote for me as a Witness or a Steemit Proxy Voter.

By voting for me as a witness, you will support an active witness on Steem and BitShares. I believe a witness should keep up-to-date on current happenings and be a conduit between the many users and the system.

Read my Witness Posts: BitShares, Steemit

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