This is my first monthly witness update since launching in late November.
As the holidays have passed and we welcome the new year, it’s time for an update on the 
These witness updates will likely come once per month, with any time-sensitive and/or
News and Announcements
If you read my original post from the launch of this witness account, or if you’re familiar with the contests that are run from my main account, 
I have been a proud supporter of the Steem Poker League – 
So with that being said...
I would like to announce that
This is an exciting time to merge the growing sports and games communities into one platform, especially considering that there is quite a bit of overlap between the two. Poker players and sports enthusiasts will soon be able to move seamlessly between online card games and sports contests...and be rewarded in the Steem currencies for both! If you enjoy sports and card games, give Lucksacks.com a try and join the chat on Discord.
Further details about funding, development, and timelines are being worked out and we will keep the community updated on any progress.
Witness Info
Since officially launching
From the rewards for the initial
This week, I adjusted my Steem account creation fee to 0.100 STEEM to reflect the increased prices of STEEM over the past three weeks and I will continue monitoring fees and STEEM prices.
While a few other witnesses have been increasing block sizes to try to deal with bandwidth issues for some users, I have made no changes to block sizes and do not have plans to make any in the near future.
Due to the spike in the Steem Dollar price that began the day after launching this witness account and the sustained support it has received well above the target peg, I increased my price feed bias to 400% a couple of weeks ago and reduced the APR on Steem Dollars to 0%. These parameters will remain as they are until the Steem Dollar prices fall below $4.00. I will then reevaluate the markets and may adjust the parameters accordingly.
A quick note on the Steem Dollar peg
I will likely explain this in more detail in a post from my main account later this week, but I want to be clear about pegging and the reason for adjusting my witness parameters.
The Steem blockchain was designed as a two-token system. We have an investment token that extends privileges to stakeholders in the Steem blockchain (STEEM) and we have a debt token that was intended for use in commerce (Steem Dollar) that does not extend any privileges to holders, other than redemption for STEEM. Witnesses are essentially the managers of these two tokens and their relationship to each other. Witnesses are responsible for publishing price feeds and setting parameters that maintain the proper relationship between the investment token and the debt token.
The intent of the Steem Dollar peg is to provide a crypto token with very low volatility to those who wish to use it for commerce. If we are intentionally ignoring the volatility or otherwise doing nothing to attempt to maintain the peg, then there’s no point in having a debt token in the first place. There is no purpose for two volatile tokens on the same blockchain – one of them representing a debt on the other.
Other than maintaining a functioning witness node on a reliable server, witnesses literally have only one other job: Publishing price feeds and setting the related parameters.
As a witness, it’s my responsibility to monitor prices and to evaluate market conditions, then adjust my witness parameters to reflect those conditions. If I’m not doing that, then I’m not being a “good” or "responsible" witness. Of course, not adjusting parameters in a given time frame is always an option, depending on the length of your outlook regarding prices and market sentiment.
Sadly, most witnesses don’t bother with setting price parameters at all. Some of them aren’t even sure what the parameters are or what their effects are. There are a handful of witnesses in the top-50 that aren’t even publishing price feeds and haven’t been publishing them for up to 9.5 months, yet are still producing blocks and earning rewards. I do not intend to be one of these witnesses and I will continue to set my parameters to reflect my intention of maintaining the Steem Dollar peg, until or unless blockchain protocols have been changed to reflect a desire to no longer want or need a debt token.
If you haven’t already, please consider approving .
As I’m currently outside of the top-50 on the witness list, the Steemit.com interface does not display my witness name on the voting list (and this is poor practice, in my opinion). So if you’d like to vote, you’ll need to enter “ats-witness” manually into the “VOTE” field here: Vote for Witnesses.
