(Img orginally from)

This post is a lot more fun if you listen to this while reading!

Have you voted for any witnesses yet? Don't understand what a witness is or does or why you should take your time to vote? Don't know who to vote for? Keep reading!

Not sure if you've voted, check here.

(Of course, these are just my opinions! Do your own research to see which witnesses you want to vote for ;))

First off, let's talk a bit more about the blockchain and Steemit:

Many of us who came here and are still minnows may look at steemit as just another social network, albeit one we can make money sharing and up voting. Steemit is actually much more than that however, it is a blockchain with a myriad of possibilities capable on its network. As a quote from @taskmaster4450 so aptly states in this post you should definitely read,

"Over the next couple years we are going to see hundreds of apps added to this blockchain. Some are going to be wildly successful, others not so much. Nevertheless, all will benefit the holders of STEEM."

and

"It is easy to get caught focusing upon the application we all utilize daily. Nevertheless, this is just a small piece of a much larger entity.

Think of it this way.

Android Operating System

Apps:

Gmail
Chrome
Maps
Drive
YouTube
Hangouts

Steem Blockchain

Steemit
Dsound
D.Tube
DLive
Steepshot
Zappl
Dmania"

....

And what many minnows don’t realize is witnesses validate the blocks that make steemit run. That’s right, there’s humans working behind this digitized reality! It’s really important to support them so they keep processing transactions and make steemit a reality!

And each of us on steemit gets 30 witness votes!

When I went to vote for witnesses I voted for ones I had interacted with...

Mostly ones I had noticed were involved with projects like @ocd, a curation account for minnows or @minnowsupport. I also noticed ones who had upvoted my posts showing that they reach out to newbies in active day to day ways.

Witnesses I voted for:

@aggroed
@ausbitbank
@blocktrades
@bue
@curie
@dragosroua
@liberosist
@ocd-witness
@pharesim
@themarkymark
@timcliff

I would similarly suggest going through the list of witnesses (especially beyond the top 50!) and voting for names you recognize.

What is a witness

from @pfunk

"Witnesses are generally voted for because they are trusted members of the community, positively contribute to Steem and Steemit in many ways, are qualified and experienced in administration of servers, and are experienced in cryptocurrency networks and software. Witnesses are expected to keep a block-producing Steem node running 24/7/365.25. They are also expected to provide an ongoing price feed of the value of STEEM tokens in U.S. dollars, set the mininum Steem Power deposit to create an account, set the APR% for the Steem Dollar interest rate, and in the future might set additional network variables. Witnesses are also strongly encouraged to run a seed-node to provide the blockchain to syncing clients."

If that still doesn't make sense. Try @someguy123's take:

"Simple Definition:

A STEEM witness is a person whom operates a witness server (which produces blocks), and publishes a price feed of STEEM/USD to the network.

Witnesses have many tasks. The first and foremost is to produce blocks (thus process transactions), the second most important is to produce a price feed, which is how STEEM Dollars are always worth 1 US Dollar in STEEM (using the 7 day exchange)."

How to vote for a witness

Go here.

Click on the Green Thumbs Up for the witness you want to vote for. This will lead you to a page where you must enter your posting code. To find this go to your wallet and click the Permissions tab. Under Posting Click "Show Private Key" on the far right. Copy and Paste that code and voila, you're able to vote!

As in life, steemit is all about relationships. Vote for the witnesses that you have a relationship with and help give them a boost!

Contrary to the title of this post, don't just vote for who I voted for.... Go out and do your own research ;)

Thanks for reading!