This is a recurrent question, and there are many misconceptions about witnessing, i want to take this opportunity to try and consolidate all the answers i have been writting scattered in different posts:
Source: US News & World Report
Basically a witness is recruited by the calling: you have a project, you have a goal, you set yourself objectives within steemit and then you get yourself a server and start by providing backup infrastructure to the network.
Little by little you get witness votes that make you go up in the ladder.
Witness vote don't cost anything to the users and each user has the right to choose 30 witnesses.
The weight of the vote is determined by how much STEEM the voter posses.
The first 20 Witnesses make most of the blocks for the blockchian, and are the ones that decide whether a hard-fork is applied, set the interest rate to help keep the SBD pegged to the USD, and have in many cases very especialized roles, like user base growth, network infrastructure, economics, support to new users etc.
from 21 to 50 those witnesses act as backup nodes for the first 20 in case there is a problem and the servers miss a block. They dont have a say in the future or present.
From 51 to 100 is like the backup of the backup.
Above 101 not much happens, see i am 113 (and growing :) ) and have make 2 blocks in about 1 month.
However we are useful because we have a full backup of the block-chain and the more backups the better, and as our projects get to be known and established I hope to obtain support to complete them.
It is a little like being a people's representative and there are many roles apart from the network to have in consideration.
It is important to choose well your witnesses because as with politicians their decisions will impact your experience on the site.
Some examples:
- spend 70$ per month on a real server in a Data Center to provide infrastructure for STEEMit.
- spend another 60$ Month to provide a web server for services.
- Invest in STEEM
- spend between 16 and 20 hours per day exploring the blockchain making tools or helping users.
- write long and thoughtful posts addressed to new users explaining the workings of steemit
- support a minnow give away contests while trying to make them better by asking to add value .
- try to help other steemians with real problems.
- Maybe do forensics and find this kind of stuff.
Use the blockchain money to empower people outside in the real world like #youarehope is doing.
Remove the elite posting rewards allowing a chance for everyone to increase adoption and retention and educate new users.
External actions that are possible: I'm running a 100 + telegram channel guiding people from Venezuela to join.