The Steemit Gatekeepers, interview with @followbtcnews, MSP supporter: witness awareness series

The blog you are reading is stored on the steemit blockchain and that block passed through a witness node for verification. If the block was missed, an error appears and you have to re-submit any action (upvote, edit, follow, etc.). Once a witness misses a block, the block goes to the next witness in the queue who likely verifies correctly and gets rewarded 1 SP.
I have had the opportunity to interview multiple witnesses with various ninja skills and high-level wizardry to see what makes them tick, and why they are so passionate about steemit. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, read more about witnesses HERE
The steemit witnesses are constantly evolving and changing positions based on their weighted votes assigned by the steemit community. New witnesses are continually starting up new nodes for the opportunity to help maintain the blockchain and be rewarded for their efforts.

One of these newer witnesses is @followbtcnews who is a fellow member of the Minnow Support Project (MSP) and in a very short time has propelled himself to the #61 spot.

Why don't we start by telling the steemians a little bit about yourself.

Hi everyone in Steemit land! My name is Jeff, and I am so excited to be on Steemit, full-time! I have spent time helping Minnow Support and I am currently working on a Steemit project that will help every single person on Steemit...I don't want to give the secret away, just yet, but I'm very excited to soon be rolling it out to the world. Besides my enthusiasm for Steem, I also am a huge crypto fan, ever since 2011. My fiance, @nataliejohnson is also on Steemit. Natalie and I own a crypto news site, and she has been a journalist for some large online crypto news sites, as well. She won't be my fiance for long, however, because on July 29 we are getting married!

When I'm not on Steemit, I am working as an online marketer. I've been in this industry for 10 years, and I love it. It grants me the freedom to work when I want, wherever I want, and it frees up most of my time. Natalie and myself are heavily invested into crypto and I don't mean just money, I am talking about heart and soul, mainly Steem. We love it here and plan on helping it go as far as we can. We have 2 cats... who just made their first appearance on Steemit in Natalie's post last week;)

I also love to sail. We have a 38' sailboat, and we have been all over the Carribean. I love the freedom I feel when I am in the middle of the ocean, with no government to govern me. No phone calls, no tax collector can reach me. It's 100% freedom. And that, my friend, is what I beleive makes me so in love with crypto. Crypto is the People's money, controlled only by you and I.

You have been on steemit.com since May, what made you decide to bite the bullet and become a witness?

When I get involved in something I go for it 110% so, for me, after finding Steemit, the next obvious step was to help support the Steem blockchain. To do so, I needed to set up a Witness and a seed node, which is at seed.followbtcnews.com:2001

Since you received your first block 10 days ago, you have moved up to number 72 on the witness list. Can you tell us a little bit about the journey to campaign for votes as a witness?

@followbtcnews is #61 at time of post As of Saturday, July 22, my witness moved to position 70. (And yes, I am stoked about that!!) How have I gotten this far? One way is by networking, forming relationships with the community, and by being involved with various Steemit projects. I feel very fortunate to have received the votes I have so far. It's humbling and I cannot express how thrilled I am to have come this far with you guys. I want to thank everyone on Steemit who has supported me!

Starting up a new witness node has to be time consuming. How much time have you devoted to getting the node running so far?

I paid a good friend of mine on Steemit, @someguy123, to set up the witness and node, and I pay a monthly fee for it to be managed. This way, my time is better spent on developing Steemit projects and engaging with the community.

As a fellow member of MinnowSupport Project, I am aware that you are donating half of the proceeds from your witness to the project. What is your full involvement with MSP?

My first MSP delegation from the witness will be Friday, July 28. I am very excited to be able to contribute as much as I possibly can (with the help of voters) to MSP. Most recently, myself and @crimsonlad helped build the official MSP website at www.minnowsupportproject.org. Also, just last week, MSP awarded me an MSP Medal of Honor for the dedication and committment I have put forth into MSP so far.

With the recent soft fork impacting bandwidth, it is clear there are limitations to the system. What ideas do you have to improve the blockchain or community?

The recent banwidth problem was an issue, a big one. Thanks to guys like @abit , @someguy123 , @timcliff , @ausbitbank , @rycharde , @reggaemuffin and quite a few other great guys, the issue has been corrected for now and we updated our witness as soon as the new soft fork release, 19.1, was published on GitHub. One of my top concerns now is the bottle neck we have on new sign ups. Sign ups being delayed like this is a major roadblock to new users joining Steemit. I am currently brainstorming ways to help solve this issue. We need to resolve this asap if we want Steemit to keep on growing.

You run a news site called followthatbitcoin.com, have you thought about a news site for steemit?

Actually, no... I have not thought about this but now that you mention it, it's not a bad idea, great suggestion! I am, however, currently developing an external website for Steemit that will benefit all Steemit users. I do not want want to give the secret away since it's still in dev mode but I am working on this project with @crimsonclad, and we are super excited about it.

Where do you see the future of steemit, and blockchain technology in general, in 10 years?

Ten years from now, I see Steemit as one of the top social blogging platforms on the world wide web. With the strength and dedication of this community, there is only one way for Steem and Steemit to go, which is up. I have never seen a community with such dedication and passion. Blockchain technology, I feel, can be compared to how the internet was in the 1990s. It is a revolution that cannot be undone. The internet changed the world, and blockchain technology is having an equally powerful impact.

Why is it important for steemians to vote for witnesses, and why should they vote for you?

Steemians need to vote for witnesses because witnesses are the backbone of the Steem blockchain. When a user votes on a witness they are essentially a stakeholder in Steem and have a say on the direction of the platform. I am working full time on Steemit and dedicating my own money to help further Steemit. Also, 50% of the witness proceeds go to help new minnows, and the other 50% will go towards Steemit related projects. There are many witnesses you can vote for here on Steemit, but you only have 30 votes.

I ask each and every one of you to please take a minute and go and vote for witnesses that you believe are good for this community. I am putting all I have into this community, and I promise to contunue to represent it with integrity and dedication. Vote @followbtcnews for witness!

OK, so now that you know what these wonderful witnesses do for our community, the least you can do it vote for them. Dead witnesses verify no blocks, so cast your votes and make sure our blocks get verified and not dropped.

First, point your browser to https://steemit.com/~witnesses

Vote away, using your best judgement. If you want to know more about a Witness, be sure to visit their Witness feed. You can always add in a witness who is not in the top 50, or you can choose your favorite witness (or other steemian) as a proxy and delegate your votes too!

@followbtcnews witness thread

Previous Interview threads

@ausbitbank
@aggroed
@theprophet0
@neoxian
@someguy123
@timcliff
@dragosroua

Upcoming Interview threads

@reggaemuffin
@good-karma

You can verify how well these witnesses are doing their job of verifying blocks a couple of different ways and this may also factor into voting choices.
Stats on Witness activity are available at
Steemd & Steemdb

Thanks to the PALNet and MinnowSupport project

The PALnet and MinnowSupport project is one of the fastest growing Steemit social groups supported by @aggroed @ausbitbank @theprophet0 @neoxian @someguy123 @thecryptodrive @teamsteem, @acidyo, & @followbtcnews. We have almost 4000 members dedicated to helping each other grow into dolphins and eventually whales, and are fueled by member delegations. @crimsonclad has been working her tail off creating a new website for the MSP and PALnet members.

Grand total of more than 100,000 SP to help upvote minnows!

Check out @crimsonclad's beautiful new MSP site at http://minnowsupportproject.org/ and please join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/HYj4yvw

Minnow Support Project: Problem Statement, Vision Statement, Mission Statement, and Plan to help you grom from Minnow to Whale with friends in record time

Image courtesy of @justcallmemyth

thanks to @kristyglas for the line breaks, find more here

If you are a witness and would like to be interviewed, you can find me in the PALnet discord chat or hit me up at [email protected]

Check out some of my previous posts if you like what you've read

Witness Awareness Series: Interviews with various witnesses
Interview with @dragorsoua
Interview with @timcliff
Interview with @someguy123
Interview with @neoxian
Interviews with @aggroed, @theprophet0, and @ausbitbank

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