STEEM WITNESSES: Who are they? What do they do and How can you influence them?
Steemit is a website on the Blockchain and as such, is a fancy social media that runs on a robust network called Steem which operates similar to Bitcoin.
Do you know that Steemit is not controlled by everyone of us? Yes, we are responsible for what we see on Steemit and we do that through our chosen Witnesses.
We will be looking at who Witnesses are, what they do and how you can influence them.
Who is a Witness?
A witness is someone who plays a crucial part in how the STEEM network functions. Witnesses are to STEEM what Miners are to Bitcoin.
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.
What do Witnesses do?
Witnesses have various tasks they are involved in for STEEM and the Steemit networks. Their duties range from Blocks production to approving contents and documentation.
Let's break it down.
Block production/creation.
Witnesses are responsible for the creation of Blocks and this is the most important aspect of their work; documenting every posts, votes, transfers etc and putting same in a block and documented in the blockchain.
The production of Blocks takes place every 3 seconds and a round can have 21 blocks produced by different witnesses. After 63 seconds the cycle starts again and this is to ensures even participation in the process of block creation by all the witnesses.Price feed.
Witnesses are responsible for the production of and maintenance of a price feed.This is the second most important aspect of their roles as Witnesses as they do this to ensure that STEEM Dollars are always worth 1 US Dollar in STEEM by using the 7 day exchange.
They are also presently pushing to set an APR which should be an incentive for the users to hold their SBD longer. Currently, the interest rate is 0%.DPOS/Consensus.
Consensus or Delegated Proof of Stake means that the witnesses are responsible for pushing through new versions of Steemit for everyone to use it. The witnesses decide if the new version will be activated on the nodes they run. The agreement rate required is 67%, i.e. at least 13 witnesses have to agree on changes before they are effected.
Do Witnesses get paid?
A witness is paid proportionally to how high they are in the witness ranks, excluding the top 19 witnesses (who get 1 block every ~63 seconds). A STEEM block is valued at STEEM Power and is worth 1 STEEM Power. This means that witnesses earn their pay in SP and not STEEM or SBD.
How much Blocks can be produced? A witness at rank 30 can produce as many as 4 blocks/hour, compared to a witness at rank 50, which may produce less than 1 block/hour.
How can you influence Witnesses?
You can influence the kinds of witnesses you want to see by Voting them. Witnesses are moved through the ranks by the users who have the power to do that and that power is exercised through the Voting system.
Each user has 30 voting slots and can freely use that to get the kind of witness that will continue to smoothly run the STEEM Network for them.
Your vote counts as it is said in the centralized world and here also, it sure counts because as a decentralized community, the power is in your hand to create a community you want.
How do I vote for a Witness?
Voting for a witness is easy once you are aware and sure of the witness you think and know is doing good work for the community. Simply go to this link https://steemit.com/~witnesses and vote some witnesses.
Should you care to vote for a witness?
Yes you should and as a matter of fact, doing it immediately shows you understand the role this group plays in ensuring a productive and vibrant community for the creative commons.
So go Vote a witness here at:- https://steemit.com/~witnesses
We hope this article has been helpful. Read more detailed explanations about witnesses below.
Seriously, what is a STEEM witness? Why should I care? How do I become one? (Answer)
Learn Something About Steemit #5: What Witnesses Do And How You Can Influence Steemit
Image source: Steemitguide
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I had been looking for this information for so long and you explained it all so simply thanks for sharing this with us!
Thanks for reading and glad you find this article useful.
Hi @stach, I'm very interesting with your post. Can I translate your post to my language Indonesia?
Most certainly. Yes please do, it will help more people understand why they need to vote witness.
Hi @stach, I'm already translate it. These is it:
https://steemit.com/witness-category/@isaideureka/steem-witnesses-saksi-steem-siapa-mereka-apa-yang-mereka-lakukan-dan-bagaiman-pengaruh-anda-pada-mereka
Hope you like it.
Finally unserstood it, great post, upvoted.
Thanks, and we hope you will take action as well.
The informative post I was searching for. thanks.
Thank you.
I've been on steemit for about 4 months now and have voted for about 12 witnesses maybe. I vote when I notice someone asking me to. Then I look through their blog and see that they seem to care about doing a good job and seem to know what they are talking about. I'm new to crypto and not even sure what a blockchain is so I'm not sure my voting choices would be for the best.
About 1/3 of my votes are to write-in candidates.
Since I am on the lookout for witnesses to vote for and don't see them - this tells me - something - I don't know what. Maybe some of them rarely post or I just missed it.
I'm thinking about turning over my witness voting to jerrybanfield since I believe he is someone who tries hard and investigates all the angles. He's actively looking for people to give him their witness voting power and I feel like that might be more effective for my votes.
Another interesting facet of the fascinating steemit platform :)
Well, the choice to vote someone your witness is yours... You have 30 slot just be sure you know you are giving your vote to a credible person.... I think someone who is original deserve being your witness... If you trust such person too you can make him your proxy
I feel like using the proxy would give the task to someone who understands this better than me.
Giving proxy to a wrong person may cause harm to STEEMIT.... Reconsider Who You Are Giving Your Proxy to
I know - some people hate him, but I trust him for this. It's not like I can't get the votes back.
Okay!!! It's your choice Sis, but don't get me wrong.... I don't hate him.... My words are just a piece of advice
Got it :)
I'm glad you got it
Thank you for reading. Most of the witnesses rarely post and some don't. We are glad this article has been able to make you know more.
Thank you! I really appreciate the help. Steemit is a big puzzle for me.
This is a good and informative article.... Thanks for sharing @stach.... You did wonderfully well to gather this information
Thank you for reading and finding it useful.
You are most welcome for sharing
Nice post..it will definitely help us. thanks for sharing.
Thank you for reading and please do take action and vote your witnesses today.
What an incredibly concise and well written article!
Thank you! This neat guide seems to cover the bases and offers a lot of information without an overabundance of words!
Yes, always good to remind everyone to get involved and vote and have a clue at least about how things roll around here. (-:
I'm glad the voters on this post agree :)
Thank you. We are glad the information is well received.
your presentation is spot on!
its a great information to share ..hope to see you do more of this kind @stach ..upped
Thank you. STACH is about making it easy for all.
Have there been any record of a Nigerian been a witness before?
Witnesses are people from different background and there may be Nigerian witness(es). There is a place for everyone to be a witness and you can start by voting one today.