witness 101: Translating the concept of 'witness' to the African and Nigerian community. Simple, easy and pidgin english.
With the increase in the African and Nigerian population on steemit in recent weeks, I thought to introduce to my fellow Africans, the concept of;
Who a witness is and what they do...
How you can vote for one...
Why you need to vote for one...
I do this due to the fact that many Nigerians and Africans may not be tech savy and as such, may not understand what exactly is going on. I'll be using pidgin English where I need to. . . . .
Notice:
This guide will use pre-existing material from some notable people on steemit and personal opinion will influence some of the words here.
Who is a witness and what does he/she do??
The very best explanation is given by pfunk in this post
Steemit.com is a social blogging platform powered by a decentralized blockchain called Steem.
The Steem blockchain produces blocks in 63-second rounds: 21 blocks per round at a target of 3 seconds between blocks.
A decentralized blockchain needs a varied set of people running computers to create these blocks. There are many solutions to this, and Steem uses a consensus mechanism called Delegated Proof of Stake, or DPOS.
In the DPOS system, what are called witnesses in Steem are delegated by the collective Steem Power-weighted witness approval votes from Steem accounts.
In essence just know that witnesses are those that create(or mine of you are used to bitcoin terms), and validate blocks.
a block consist of any transaction you make on steemit, a transaction na anything wey you do for steemit, upvote o, downvote o, transfer money, reply, etc etc, anything wey you dey do for the site, as long say you fit click am do something, that na transaction
Witnesses create/mine blocks, they create/mine the ''STEEM' which is the currency of steemit.
DPOS- delegated proof of stake is a concept that was created by @dan, co-creator of steemit.
Under the hood, DPoS uses a reputation system and real-time voting to achieve consensus. To be more specific, a panel of trusted parties has to be established, with all of its members eligible to create blocks and prevent non-trusted parties from participating. Delegates, the parties responsible for creating blocks, are unable to change transaction details. However, they can prevent specific transactions from being included in the next network block.
It is a more efficient PoS algorithm altogether, and seemingly provides more decentralization when it comes to issuing stake rewards to more people. Moreover, DPoS provides reliably confirmed transactions on the networks that implement this technology.
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In simple terms, it means that the people running the system, i.e the witnesses are ranked and voted by the people of the community.
In DPOS the accounts with Steem choose who gets to make blocks instead of in Proof of Work mining where miners compete to finish a new block without needing to hold any of the cryptocurrency itself. All transactions with Steem and Steem Dollars including the creation of new Steem go through witness servers generally in just a few seconds.
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On the Steem blockchain, witnesses serve a role of validating signatures and timestamping transactions by including them in blocks. A block is any group of transactions (posts, votes, transfers, etc) which update the state of the database. Each time a witness produces a block, they are paid for their service. If a witness fails to produce a block, then they are not paid, and may even be voted out.
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HOW CAN YOU VOTE FOR A WITNESS?
the list for the current top 100 witnesses can be found here HERE thanks to @roadscape who is also a witness.
alternateively, you can view the list of about 200 witnesses HERE thanks to @netuoso for creating this.
To cast your vote for a witness go HERE if you don't see them listed in the top 50, just type the witness username in the box below and hit the vote button.
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Why should you vote for a witness?
Since the witnesses basically process every transaction you make on steemit, making a sound decision on who to vote is basically like choosing who to vote for on a political rally.
The absolute best way to know who to vote for is by going the extra mile and checking for those who are interacting with the community, those who have helpful projects with the community, those who you believe have good intentions for the steemit community.
Personally I vote for those I have interacted with and believe have good intentions for the community. Do not get me wrong, every witness has one project or the other they are committed to on the STEEM blockchain.
If you need resources to learning about steemit witnesses, you can check this post by @pfunk https://steemit.com/steemit-guides/@pfunk/a-full-steemit-user-s-guide-to-steem-witnesses.
If you need a guide to becoming a steemit witness, I see no better begining than; https://steemit.com/steemhelp/@steemed/become-a-steem-witness-essentials
Another resource pertaining to steem witnesses is by @asksteem https://steemit.com/steem/@asksteem/asksteem-what-is-a-steemit-witness.
https://steemit.com/witness-category/@timcliff/timcliff-witness-update-2017-08-03
Well written and researched post. You published the simplest explanation of who witnesses are.
o, whew, glad you liked it, was beginning to thing \i had messed up
Am i dope enough as a redfish to become one?
you sure are bro, you sure are. . .