Witness @prc Update #1 after HF20: October 27th, 2018 - Witness nodes back online and upgraded
Hi Steemian friends! :)
This is my Witness Update, going through all the details about my Witness challenges, and for those of you who don't know me yet, here are some photos in my favorite playground: my music studio! :)
I am a life long Software Developer, working on Blockchain for last years on several projects, but I am also a DJ and Electronic Music Producer, my alter-ego "Kolatz" that you can browse for if interested... :)
I am the creator of DSound, which has continued to grow besides the state of the crypto economy, getting to the 9000+ users actually, and the next release will be the first "beta" release with loads of new features! :)
If you got curious about DSound, please check it out: https://dsound.audio
Update #1 after HF20
Yes, these last months have not been easy. Hard Fork 20 came about and with it loads of challenges to all the witnesses! To sum up with that, my witness nodes were reaching their limits and asking for an upgrade again... And DSound development was, and still is, demanding my 24 hours of work days and nights too! ;)
The update to HF20 was not an easy task, I tried to do it and all my nodes got stuck at the replay stage... Never ending story...
I asked some questions on the witness chat group in steem.chat, but the timing was not the best to get someone to help, as everybody was strugling with the problems that came up. So I got stuck with my nodes and without any time to explore and nobody available to help me overcome this... so I decided to deactivate my witness nodes until the issues were resolved and an HF20 stable version was released.
And it turned out quite ok, since I would have been one more witness struggling through all those updates, builds, replays and missed blocks! :)
Also my nodes needed an upgrade to 64GB RAM and bigger storage as the blockchain is getting bigger and bigger and the shared file is also growing at a fast pace, so I had to get quotes for the hardware and get it installed on my boxes, as my servers are real boxes, not VPS. So that process also took a bit of time... And at my position in the Witness rank, the investment on the servers is also a struggle, since the costs are always surpassing the revenue! But I believe in Steem and pushed it once more!!!
Well, today I finally got my witness node back online, my price feed also updated and my other nodes are on their way too! :)
During this period of downtime many people that voted on my witness decided to remove the vote, which I totally understand. Voting for witnesses is an important responsibility and so voting in inactive witnesses should be always avoided, giving way to other witnesses to fill in the gaps.
Although, I am still proud of my 1099 votes! Thanks so much to the people that came to me asking what happened and even offering to help out! And mainly the ones that believed in me and maintained their support through this difficult period, which the biggest ones are:
@done
@xaero1
@dtube
@steemfuckeos
@cob
@bleujay
@themonetaryfew
@everlove
@hebrew
@dan-atstarlite
@marketingmonk
@isaria
@rosatravels
@jaybird
@soundlegion
@pnc
@elmetro
@heimindanger
@sircork
@shanibeer
Thank you so much guys! :)
But, due to this downtime and all the explained above, the votes that I lost took me from #40 down to #115 in Witness rank. So now I am not in the top 100 anymore, so I need to recover from this...
First, I want to thank all the people that voted in me since the begining of my Witness adventure! I am still motivated and wanting to be a great witness in the Steem ecosystem! I continue to develop DSound and pushing it to the next level. And mainly I am truely grateful for deserving their vote for some time! :)
Some of my biggest voters that had to switch their support to other witnesses really made a difference in the rank position, so I want to thank them for the time that they supported me! Also, let them know that my nodes are already back on track, and that if they get a spare vote available, please reconsider me for that space.
My biggest supporters to whom I address these last words are:
@rok-sivante
@noisy
@blockchained
@minnowsupport
@bleepcoin
@sircork
@d-pend
@drakos
@adsactly
@clayop
@vachemorte
@acidyo
@patrice
@kubbyelizabeth
@pumpkin
@roadscape
@master-set
@riverhead
@noisy
@haejin
@steemgigs
@riseofth
@michelios
@themarkymark
@lyndsaybowes
@ethandsmith
@timcliff
@pataty69
@kona
@steevc
@future24
All the votes are very important, so if you believe in my work for Steem ecosystem and you also realocated your votes for other witnesses during my downtime, please consider me again now for your Witness choices. I'd love to get your support back.
I will continue to deliver stability on the network, and my commitment on my Steem blockchain related projects and, most of all, to bring Music enthusiasts, Artists and Portuguese people to our favorite blockchain is still the same as ever! :)
Thanks so much guys! I'll do my best for the community and to make you proud of your vote in me...
Technical Infrastructure
Related to technical stuff, my servers are a blast now! :)
My dedicated server boxes are now with the following specs. All boxes are behind firewalls, IDS and power redundancy systems. The server characteristics are subject to upgrade or revision as needed.
| Witness node | Dedicated Server |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 4x core 3.5GHz |
| RAM | 64GB RAM DDR4 |
| Disks | 256GB SSD x 2 |
| Connection | Gigabit over optical fiber backbone |
| Power | Redundant + UPS |
| Location | EU - Portugal |
| Backup node | Dedicated Server |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 4x core 3.5GHz |
| RAM | 64GB RAM DDR4 |
| Disks | 256GB SSD + 320GB HD |
| Connection | Gigabit over optical fiber backbone |
| Power | Redundant + UPS |
| Location | EU - Portugal |
| Seed node | Dedicated Server |
|---|---|
| host:port | seed.steem.prcolaco.com:2001 |
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 3 2200G 4x core 3.5GHz |
| RAM | 64GB RAM DDR4 |
| Disks | 256GB SSD + 320GB HD |
| Connection | Gigabit over optical fiber backbone |
| Power | Redundant + UPS |
| Location | EU - Portugal |
What I am working on
I am currently working on DSound first "beta" release, that will be out soon, and finishing many improvements to stability and completely resolve the playback wait times to almost instantaneous! Also many other news to be announced really soon... Keep tuned my friends! ;)
On the community side, plenty of work to do and arrangements to fulfill the demand of a 9000+ community that is growing by the hour, so many improvements have been made on the social media side and to keep DSound Discord healthy while growing... DSound is always improving and I count with many people helping me out now! :)
Conclusion
I think that my Steem Witness endeavour is still going well. My servers are rock solid and keeping up with the growth as promised! :)
My involvement with the community continues to grow. The stake of Steem I already hold, as well as what will come from witnessing, will still be vested as I already do, as I never powered down.
I want to witness Steem growth and success, so count on me to help make it happen! :)
And If you trust me and approve what I do in the Steem ecosystem, please give me your Witness vote to help me continue...
Design by @aleister
You can vote for me as a Steem Witness here: Vote with SteemConnect
... but if you prefer the oldfashion way, please go to:
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
or if you cannot find me on the top 100 anymore (I hope you do, but votes come and go...)
You sure have been busy! Never removed my witness vote, and will continue my support, keep up the great work! Upvoted and resteemed ;)
Thanks a lot my friend! :)
Got my vote bro, thanks for all your time and hardworking, hope things get leveled out and super excited about the beta release. Stay awesome brother, B E W E L L
Posted using Partiko Android
Thanks a lot mate! :) Will keep pushing it further...
Go on @prc! ;)
0.20.6 to the moon! Ehehehe
Hell yeah! :) Big hug my friend!
And bring the "caneco" from Poland! ;)
I'm only tiny plankton in this Steemit ocean, but you can count on my vote, which I never removed, because Dsound has been one of the most positive experience since I've joined Steemit. Thank you for all the hard work and excellent service you're providing for indipendent musicians like myself. :)
Thank you buddy! Couldn't do it without all of the DSound tribe! :)
@prc I just voted for you as witness. I decided continue supporting you voting DSound Posts with my trail @pataty69 in @steemauto and promoting your witness work on all my posts.
Posted using Partiko Android
Thanks for the vote of confidence pal! I will keep on pushing it forward! There's a lot more to come... keep tuned... ;)
Voted for your Witness ! You’re doing AMAZING work my friend.
Thanks a lot my friend! :) Will be pushing it forward, keep tuned! ;)
I didn't know you were a witness, but you have my vote now! Your work on Dsound gave me a platform that had changed my life. Thank you @prc!
Thank you a lot my friend! :) DSound is our community and each of us is an important part of it! ;)
Will the new DSound version have fixed the upload problems for files longer then 80 minutes @prc? I have been unable to upload my liveset because of this problem for over a year as I am sure you are aware (I have contacted you about it several times). My liveset is 90 minutes, as are most electronic music livesets these days, so the ~80 min file limit is really annoying. I dont wanna chop it into two parts...
There is no limit on the upload length. The limit might be on the browser you use or the computer RAM. Uploads from mobile are still not supported, but will soon. Please check back to our Discord server so that your problem can be investigated... But the new "beta" will come out with some cool alternatives, stay tuned! :)
We have been through this already on discord and steem.chat mate. I have tried every possible browser and a ton of computers with one of them even having 64gb of ram. Your platform won't handle my liveset even when in mp3 format with its 90 minutes length. If I convert same file to a mp4 with a picture @dtube handles it just fine...
Last year I even sent you a Dj-Set of mine over wetransfer after you requested it. Back then I had already been through several browsers and computers with different amounts of ram. After you got the file I never heard anything back from you, even after trying to reach you several times.
I have gotten so fed up waiting for dsound to work over the last year that I have been considering creating my own steem based media platform. I am happy to hear about some progress happening soon for your platform atleast; better late then never...
I am sorry for that issue mate, but there are many other people that upload 2h or even 3h sets to DSound. It has to be a problem with your setup, network or any other thing... And if I didn't get back to you, sorry for that, but you should be retrying more, since I have been really busy and some things get lost in the way... Let's continue this on Discord #support and see if we can find the problem.
What's your stance on reward curve?
I think that the reward "curve" now is a lot better than the old curve. If we had the old reward curve now I think that the vast majority of minnows would have left Steem, as the depreciation in Steem value would render their votes completely useless... Although I think there's much more to evolve on the reward system, for now it is significantly more fair than before.
Do you realize that the current linear scheme encourages content indifferent vote-selling? Everything comes with a trade-off. It's not only about minnows' voting power, they could be earning by doing proper curation, but right now it is more profitable for them to just rent their SP. The reward pool is being drained by trash content as there is no economic icentives to support quality content. Please consider supporting an immediate change. This can be fixed with cryptoeconomics. We all want a better STEEM. Thanks for reading and thanks for Dsound, great dapp.
https://busy.org/@kevinwong/understanding-steem-s-economic-flaw-its-effects-on-the-network-and-how-to-fix-it
https://busy.org/@trafalgar/help-fix-steem-s-economy
https://busy.org/@teamsteem/why-i-advice-against-linear-reward
https://busy.org/@frdem3dot0/superlinear-rewards-sublinear-rc-s
https://busy.org/@ats-david/improved-curation-rewards-are-still-a-necessity
Thank you for your hard work - you still have my vote :)
Thanks a lot mate! :) You also deserve mine for all you share and help in the witness chat! I am a believer in collaboration and you are always there to help out other people...