Why witnesses earn far too much money by @shla-rafia. Explained based on a quote made by witness @klye
I wrote a quality article,
and only received around 15 votes in the first hour. After thinking a bit about why the witnesses don't take action and create a better incentive to vote I thought about a quote by @klye:
People work harder, are more creative and generally tend to be on their A+ game when faced with financial problems..
Comfortable people aren't as motivated, success is born of struggle.
Could it be that witnesses earn far too much money?
According to @klye's statement who is ranked number 12 on the list of the 20 witnesses who earn so much each day,
.. accepted that his statement is true for most people I figured: Yes!
Would you care how much money someone makes when you earn $6000 a month and do not have the highest work ethic?
In my view there are witnesses that make way too much, and there are witnesses that don't make nearly enough. You are right that the top witnesses do get paid a lot, but to do it right - it is not as easy as it sounds.
We are responsible for running our nodes 24/7. Just this past weekend, I was out of town staying at a cabin with no internet, and I got an alert on my cell phone that one of my witness nodes went down. I had to drop what I was doing and drive into town where there was internet access, so I could login and address the problem with my node. Getting woken up at 3 in the morning to address a server problem is not uncommon.
In addition to the technical side, witnesses are expected to be on top of everything that is happening in the community, and have an understanding of how the code works. We also need to do things that add value to the platform and community if we expect to earn any votes.
Also, the pay you quoted assumes a stable STEEM price around what it is now. Many witnesses (myself included) were still there running their services when STEEM was around 8 cents. While it would be nice if the price stayed where it was now for a year (and even went higher) - it is no guarantee.
If you were to find a qualified person that was able to do this through a regular job interview process and explain to them all that it entails, a lot of the people who would be fit for the job would turn it down because it doesn't pay enough. People that have the qualifications to do this job have a lot of other options for where to spend their time.
In general, the witnesses who are good at what they do are not in it because of the money. Again, with the skill sets they have to do the job well, they could make more doing something else. They are here because they care deeply about the platform, and want to see it successful. Being a witness puts them in a position to make that happen.
Going back to my opening paragraph though, I do feel that there are a lot of witnesses in the top ranks that are "coasting" and ones in the lower ranks that are working their tails off. In my view, the best thing that can happen is for the stakeholders to pay attention to what the witnesses are up to, and use their votes accordingly. If it takes a lot of hard work and adding value to get a top witness position + stay there, then that is what the people who want the position bad enough will do.
If anyone who is qualified for the position feels that they can do a better job than the witnesses that are currently there, I encourage you to run a campaign. I'd love to see more qualified and valuable witnesses make their way to the top.
Exactly what Tim just said. Even witnesses not in the top 100 have to work their asses off. It's full time responsibilities, always on call. I've got email notifications when a service my team offers stops working, I plan algorithms to help others' projects while waiting on appointments, ordering food, whatever that grants me a minute to sit down and think. I'm in the 120s. It's not easy and it shouldn't be easy to get votes. A good portion of witnesses who got up there aren't the original insiders and legitimately deserve what they achieved. If it wasn't for witnesses there'd be no third-party services, there'd be no projects, there'd be no communities, etc.
Further, without the prospect of rewards there'd be no way to attract high talent. For the @guiltyparties witness with its 120something rank there is a solid, highly educated, professional team with a project manager, a blockchain developer, and entrepreneurs. We started this to build on the STEEM blockchain. There are other witnesses out there who are witnesses for a living. While they receive rewards, the amount of effort and time they dedicate to it equates to what they would make in a full time job. Pretty much anyone who runs a witness successfully has the skills to get a high-paying job in the IT sector. Those who don't can't even get set up.
Witnesses make money, from processing the transactions.
and people who invest big money. they learn about them.
maybe that's why? I don't really know.. there is no Hard work involved here..
I asked what you think about my theory. What do you think. Are they careless about creating a better incentive to curate because they earn far too much?
why would someone, click click click.. ? if they can make more than enough
money without doing it?
Given that @klye believes his own words this is a serious problem. At least he must be not at his top A+ game..
If you think having money makes a man comfortable I can tell you right now this ain't the case.. money just opens up more options to possibly become comfortable.
I'm probably not on my A+ game right now, my life, a relationship and living situation fell to shit not long ago and I'm still coming to terms with the changes..
However, that being said... If you're qouting things I've said I'm clearly not failing to invoke engagement or discussion... That alone shows to myself that even facing a depression I'm capable of influence here.. lol
I think you are exactly right. Not necessarily on your theory, though that is probably right as well, but I think you are right that they are earning far too much.
From my understanding the top 20 witnesses or so earn 250 Steem per day.
Which at current prices is roughly $308 USD per day.
That is massive income!
Yes they have costs of course, but none even come close to being a fraction of that amount on a daily basis.
Why are witnesses sitting back and collecting over $300 per day to perform the tasks they perform?
I do not doubt that they are valuable tasks, that is not what my comment is about, but I would venture to say that they are not $308 per day valuable...
In comparison, the top witnesses would all be in the top 20 highest earning bloggers on the site.
Not to mention some of these witnesses also blog on a daily basis, adding to their weekly earnings.
I think it is time we revisit the Witness Earning's discussions. What say you?
These are Klye's words. I believe in basic income and that 33 percent of all users payouts should go to every account which is verified. That makes me a minority although @dan stated that he thinks that basic income could be done somehow and everyone is here because he programmed steemit. Now when @klye states that people are only in their "A+ game" when they struggle then he likely isn't in his top A + game because 6000 a month is enough to live one year in Cambodia in luxury! Why do we produce everything in china? Because it's cheap! I am sure that there are people who can do it for less the price. As you can see, none of them came here and made a statement. They do not have to come down from their high horse and we can only pressure them by not voting anymore. I say take off your votes everybody and protest. Witnesses should be paid little if they do not go forward and listen to the problems of the users. We have to get them to work hard for their money. Not like now where they can lean back and watch steemit drown. I don't think thag 30k active accounts are a good achievement for more than a year. It's nothing. This has to do with the mentality. I was at steemfest and homeless. Do you think any of the attendees would have offered to borrow/invest or help in any financial way for my situation? Nothing! I have been to jail as a result of handing out thousands of flyers for bitshares and steemit! They don;t need to push steemit forward because they swim in money. for them it doesn't matter. They have already too much money.
I think the platform is growing with new features and some functions my soon become irrelevant. However, anyone can be a witness only that luck has not smiled yet!
I'm sorry but what you are writing is total gibberish
Hahahaha what did he even say :D
I also have my weaknesses stop laughing :D
52 votes. I never use the chats "25 posts or more" so this is a good result. Since I know how the person who runs these chats talked to me I have no wish to use it again. If I would use it I could make so much more money. It's like the chat-owner is stealing voter activity. I don't know how to say it. It's centralized. Think about abandoing these chats and free yourself from the tyrants. Be free!
Personally, I just think you misinterpreted what @klye was actually saying. I highly doubt he was calling himself lazy, considering he is a top-20 witness.
I have my own set of beliefs in my approach to things.. And that is, don't have a say until you have walked the talk. Because experience is generally far different to how something may be perceived. Just my thoughts :)
You don't make sense.
Really? What do you have trouble understanding, in what I said? :)
Klye didn't call himself lazy. I didn't interpret it that way. You should read it again.
You are implying that witnesses are overpaid, because of the assumption that they are too comfortable?
Klye was saying that people get lazy when they are comfortable..
Just adding up the pieces here :) I honestly am not bothered about the whole situation, I just wanted to clarify my thoughts haha
I personally am not going to say anything about the fairness in being a witness until I am firstly running my witness, and secondly a decent rank to actually judge :)
He believes that when peoole are compfortabel they are not on their a=game. I say that in case this is true for him and the majority then he might be and they too a bit too compfortable to fix the voting incentive.