Meet Our Witnesses - @gtg (second round of interviews)

As Steemians who want to see this platform continue to grow and flourish along with the steem token, I feel it is our duty to elect witnesses who will not only serve as master nodes but also add to the development of the Seem/Steemit environment. Most people are able to run a node with a little but of research and the proper equipment, but Witnesses vying for the top spot on the steemit network are rewarded for there position and should be doing more for the community. We all have 30 votes to cast for the witnesses of our choice and these are the 30 most important up votes you will ever make on this platform. Witnesses are the leaders in this community and thus it is of paramount importance that we due our due diligence before casting our votes.

Until recently I had barely used my witness votes and I felt it was time to change that. I didn't know many of the Steem Witnesses and hadn't put in enough effort getting to know the people who keep this platform running. The first thing I decided to do (which I should have done months ago) was read through all the Steemit FAQ pages to get a better understanding of how our ecosystem functions. After that I headed over to Steemd to check out the top 100 witnesses and what they've been doing on the platform. I highly recommend doing those two things right now, if you haven't already done so.

This is the second group of interviews that I have conducted with some of our witnesses. If you are interested in reading more of what some of our other top witnesses had to say, head over to my page @jasonshick and check them out. This second round of interviews will include (hopefully) interviews with @gtg, @aggroed, @austibank, @anyx, @drakos, @curie, @btcnews, @utopian-io, @lukestokes and @netuoso. If you have any other suggestions as to witnesses you would like to see interviewed, please leave a reply in the comments.

Now, let's get to today's witness; @gtg, (Gandalf the Grey)

Currently sitting as our #2 witness is the white wizard himself, Gandalf The Grey @gtg. Sticking to the wizardly theme, @gtg is a kind of mysterious steem wizard, there isn't a whole lot of information out there about his true identity (Although his mom calls him Gandalf as well).

From what I have found, he is a jack of all trades, helping out wherever he is needed in the community. He runs a node for the steem chain, helping things run smoothly for us, the users. He is an avid support of @steemstem, which is a collaborative effort to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. If you are interested in any of these topics, or have something great to contribute you should definitely go check out @steemstem's page. Besides supporting this worthwhile cause, he has recently started flagging those abusing the platform and attempting to take advantage of the reward pool. This is a noble cause as it helps all of us get the payouts we deserve.

Lastly, I want to touch on something he does, but it's something that we all have the capability to do. That is, promoting and requesting that steem be added to more and more exchanges. Currently steem is on 4 major exchanges, but Poloniex has be having major troubles processing transactions. The biggest and most notable exchange is Bittrex. Korbit is a Korean exchange that offers the BTC-STEEM pair, however only market orders are available. If we could each lobby a few other exchanges in attempt to get steem listed, we would be helping spread the word and in the long run, helping ourselves.

I had the chance to speak with @gtg a while back, very reasonable and easy to talk to guy, he is a great member of our community and a solid pillar for the Steem blockchain. The following is a full transcript of our interview. Hope you enjoy it.

• If there was a worldwide internet and cellular blackout for a week, what would you do for those 7 days?

Sounds like a vacation or... the end of the world. So unless it's the latter, in which case I would be dead (thanks to Trump's, Putin's, or Jong Un's toys), I would do whatever I usually do on vacation: witnessing.

• Where is the best place in the world you have ever been?

Home, sweet home.

Of course, there are a lot of awesome places around the world, but I don’t think I can name only one. I visited one of such places this year: Bagan, an ancient city located in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar.

• In 5 sentences or less, tell steemians why you deserve their vote.

I’m doing my best to be of use for the platform, and I continue to learn how to do that even better.
Also, they can read what I do for the platform in my witness updates, and if they still have any doubts, they can contact me on steemit.chat.

• With so many other tools and sites having been created for the steemit user, if you had to pick one, which would be the most useful for a new steemian to use?

https://steemd.com It gives a sneak peek under the steem's hood and makes people more curious about the platform and about how it works.

• Do you have any phobias or fears?

Yes, I'm afraid of idiots, especially idiots whose reckless decisions may affect our lives. I mean not only pressing the button and ending the world but also drunk driving and so on.

• When and why did you first get involved with steem?

It was June/July 2016 and I was just curious about that emerging platform.

• What is the biggest mistake new users make when joining steemit?

They think that they are joining steemit. They are joining something bigger than that: The Steem Platform.

• What do you think is the most attractive thing about steem and steemit?

Community. No other cryptocurrency project can compete with that.

I got a great kick out of @gtg's phobia, I think that's a phobia I wouldn't mind having myself. He also brings up a great point in the last question. Many new users come to Steemit and think they are just joining steemit. A better way to think of steemit is as a 3rd party user interface that allows you to connect to the Steem blockchain. There are several other front ends out there, it just so happens that steemit is the most widely used.

This is part 11 of the series "Meet Our Witnesses", You can read the interviews with @rival, @good-karma, @someguy123, @liondani, @patrice, @jerrybanfield, @kyle, @pharesim @reggaemuffin and @timcliff by clicking the links:

https://steemit.com/witness-category/@jasonshick/meet-our-witnesses-rival

https://steemit.com/witness-category/@jasonshick/meet-our-witnesses-good-karma

https://steemit.com/witness-category/@jasonshick/meet-our-witnesses-someguy123

https://steemit.com/witness-category/@jasonshick/meet-our-witnesses-liondani

https://steemit.com/witness-category/@jasonshick/meet-our-witnesses-patrice

https://steemit.com/witness-category/@jasonshick/meet-our-witnesses-jerrybanfield

https://steemit.com/witness-category/@jasonshick/meet-our-witnesses-kyle

https://steemit.com/witness-category/@jasonshick/meeting-our-witnesses-pharesim

https://steemit.com/witness-category/@jasonshick/meet-our-witnesses-reggaemuffin

https://steemit.com/witness-category/@jasonshick/meet-our-witnesses-timcliff

Make sure you follow along to this series as we get to know many of the leaders in the Steemit community and show some appreciation for everything they do. Thanks for reading and check back soon.