About a week ago there was a post by Hive account@khaleelkazi asking people to take action and update their witness votes to support active witnesses on Hive. The post is a link to a YouTube video where Hive account@scaredycatguide talks about how it's crazy how Hive account@leofinance isn't a top 20 witness and they should be.

This video made the rounds, and was talked about by quite a few people, ironically while Hive account@leofinance has been (and still is) missing all blocks for the last 10+ days.

Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 677. 2024-12-1 12:49:45 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 678. 2024-12-1 13:29:45 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 679. 2024-12-1 14:3:45 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 680. 2024-12-1 14:33:45 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 681. 2024-12-1 15:7:45 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 682. 2024-12-1 15:39:45 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 683. 2024-12-1 16:13:45 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 684. 2024-12-1 16:49:45 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 685. 2024-12-1 17:21:45 (UTC)
...
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 1087. 2024-12-10 21:47:34 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 1088. 2024-12-10 22:17:23 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 1089. 2024-12-10 22:59:23 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 1090. 2024-12-10 23:35:23 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 1091. 2024-12-11 0:11:23 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 1092. 2024-12-11 0:51:23 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 1093. 2024-12-11 1:27:23 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 1094. 2024-12-11 1:57:23 (UTC)
Witness leofinance missed 1 new block(s). total miss= 1095. 2024-12-11 2:35:23 (UTC)

This resulted in Hive account@louis88 & Hive account@gandalf discussing it up in #witness on Mattersmost.

Hive account@khaleelkazi steps in and is clearly concerned about Hive account@gandalf's eating habits.

At this point, I have seen others mentioning a "discussion about witnesses going on in Mattersmost". A statement is also made in the LeoFinance discord to reconsider voting for Hive account@gandalf, Hive account@louis88, Hive account@arcange. Why I wonder? I already know I've been on this list for a while as I have heard about it quite a few times. I have no illusion of being popular.

Hive account@arcange is right here, this discussion is actually available to everyone without even being invited to Mattersmost, the #witness channel is mirrored to https://openhive.chat/ where everyone on Hive is free to join. It is no longer the "secret slack" Ned ran.

I will never make another gif this amazing and it makes me sad.

This discussion goes on a little further...

Ok, I'm not going to narrate and let you read it and decide for yourself how you feel about it.

What the fuck do witnesses do then?

So, to answer the question, What the fuck do witnesses do?. Here is my take.

A witness is not a fund to support the most popular people or projects. A witness 'aka block producer' is a technical position on Hive to secure the blockchain by running approved code that witnesses transactions and ensures they meet our strict criteria and attaching their signature to a block. Granted it has mostly become running Hive account@someguy123's "Hive in a Box" which a five year old probably could run.

A witness is largely automated and the real work outside of the day to day block signing. This real work isn't talked about much and mostly ignored by most. It involves being acutely familiar with Hive and it's ecosystem to make educated and rational choices on the direction of Hive which ultimately is implemented in code. A witness is not a political position or office to be held. It's a responsibility to be around when Hive needs it most, during hard forks and critical issues and knowing how technical changes can affect our blockchain. It is not a popularity contest or reward fund for good people or good projects.

Voting for witnesses is critical to Hive remaining decentralized and running smoothly.

We are not Solana after all.

I personally have very specific criteria for voting witnesses. I vote for witnesses that I believe are technically capable to handle technical crisis if one was to arise and I feel confident they will show up if one did. I also trust them to make selfless decisions on technical aspects of Hive implemented in Hard (and Soft) Forks, I like my forks hard and consensual.

That being said, while this is what a witness is "suppose to do", it is always great to see them do more, and while that may influence my personal witness choices, these are the minimum viable product of a witness. Anything less puts my assets, and yours, at risk.

While I specifically mentioned Hive account@leofinance in this post because, it was what started this discussion. This is more about what witnesses actually do and why it is important to make good choices when voting on them. Feel free to make your own choices and take what you want from the discussion.