Witness Update #4 - 19/08/2017

From now on, I will be posting a combined Steemit/Muse witness update each week

Being a Steemit witness is not only running a witness server. You have to get involved with the community and try to make it a better place. Here are my actions since the last Witness Update:

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Witness Server & Actions

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Blocks are incoming!

Thanks to the boost from the last Witness Votes I received in the past few days, (~14MVests in weight), I started getting blocks regularly. A rough interval is 1 block every 6 days. Not enough to cover my witness server cost, but I've been a witness for less than 2 months, and I'm already headed to the top! (slowly, but steadily I think)

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Please vote!

If you haven't yet voted for any Witnesses, please do so. The survival and health of the network depends on you, voting active witnesses who stay on top of the problems of the network and their servers.

Some interesting reads that I advice you to spend a little time on:

Witness Voting - Shameless self-promotion of a post of mine! xD
Understanding Steem Witnesses; Simplified terms by @prettycynthia
Running a Witness: Is it as Easy as it Sounds? 🤔 by fellow Witness & awesome jolly pirate @drakos

You can vote for witnesses by clicking here. Feel free to vote for me too! :)

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SBD APR

Due to the price of SBD falling well below $1, I've increased my APR to 5%. Read more information in the next section about SBD.

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Steemit State

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SBD

In the past few days we saw SBD's price fall well below $1 (the price it is supposed to be). Thanks to poloniex'es problems, SBD is right now (at the time of writing this) sitting at a price of ~$0.82/SBD. Here is the trend of the price since the beginning of the month:

Data source: Coin Market Cap

To counter this, I've raised my APR to 5%. Will keep it at this until poloniex get their shit together and/or the price recovers to around $1/SBD. If it goes further below I have the intend to raise it up to 7%. No promises on that though, as these things tend to scream "SCAM!" if not done properly and with the attention required.

You can help this by not using poloniex until they fix their issues, or switch to a different exchanger. @Bittrex is awesome and their maintenances are usually finishing quickly.

Another way you can help is by voting for Witnesses who are quickly trying to resolve issues like that (in this case by raising their APR to make people hold their SBD, while the demand to buy SBD is still growing)

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Steem

For the first time since July, Steem has lost a lot too. It is now sitting at ~$0.99/Steem once again thanks to Poloniex, and they are dragging the whole market down. If you are looking to buy yourself into Steemit, now would be a good time to do it, as you'll be getting a bargain and it will also probably drive the price up again.

Data source: Coin Market Cap

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Muse Blockchain

I'm now at the top 10 of the Muse Blockchain witnesses (I'm currently ranked #7 out of 39 witnesses). Thank you very much to all the awesome people who voted for me!

There is a small issue with my server though, and if I miss a block and do not notice it quickly, there will be a chain of missed blocks. Until I find what's going on, I'll be keeping my eye on the server constantly.

You can read my Muse Witness Declaration by clicking here. You can also create a wallet for Muse Blockchain by clicking here

I have also volunteered to translate stuff to Greek, in order to help Greeks join the platform when it's ready.

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Steem.Chat

A lot of you are seeking help on the Steemit official chat. Please keep in mind that most of us are volunteers and are not related to or have a way to contact Steemit Inc.

If you need help, join the #help channel. If you are a developer and need assistance or want to ask if there is something for your language, join #dev. If you are a witness, you are strongly recommended to join #witness and #witness-blocks. (These links will take you to each channel directly)

Before you post anything on any channel (either the ones mentioned above, or any other) READ THE TOPIC and then READ THE PINNED MESSAGES! Most common answers can be found there.

Also, be sure that you have read the Steemit FAQ

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Greek-Trail

If you like supporting localised communities who want to promote Steemit in various countries, have a look at @greek-trail! The awesome people behind it are doing an even more awesome work with it by helping Greek Minnows!

You can help by following the account, upvoting their posts (originals or resteems) and you can also set @greek-trail as your Witness Voting proxy.

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The Begging Part

If you find that I add value to the network and I'm being helpful, please upvote my posts and also

Vote me for a witness.

You won't see me on the page, as I'm not in the top 50 witnesses yet, so get to the bottom of the page, fill my username (dimitrisp) as shown in the image below, and hit "VOTE"!

Previous Witness Updates:

Update #1, 27/07/2017
Update #2, 03/08/2017
Update #3, 10/08/2017

Witness Declarations:

Steemit Witness Declaration, 08/07/2017
Muse Witness Declaration, 15/08/2017

Other witness-related posts I've recently authored:

Witness Voting GR/EN, 10/08/2017
SBD Price decline GR/EN, 13/08/2017

Thank you for your time!