Meet Our Steem Witness With @yabapmatt. Episode 23

What you need to know about Hive account@yabapmatt

[picture credit Hive account@ascendedmonkey]

Welcome to the show and thanks for gracing this interview Hive account@yabapmatt

For steemians who don't know much about witnesses, can you give a layman explanation of what it is that witnesses do?

Witnesses are elected representatives who create the blocks of transactions that make up the
Steem blockchain. Witnesses ensure that all transactions follow the rules of the blockchain and
decide when and how to change the rules or implement new features via soft or hard forks.

How did you first hear about steemit and what made you decide to join?

I really don’t remember exactly how I first found out about Steem. I assume I came across some
posts on steemit.com last summer when I started to really learn about cryptocurrencies other
than Bitcoin and I thought it would be neat to sign up and try it out. Obviously I had no idea at
the time how involved I would become with it!

Being a witness takes a lot of time and energy, how do you keep a balance between this and other commitments?

Well, being a witness really doesn’t take much time and energy in and of itself, but being a
“good” witness who actively works to improve and promote Steem definitely does. I have a full
time job and a family so it’s been quite difficult to balance all of that. I do it by focusing on
efficiency, not getting distracted, and aggressively prioritizing. As you know it has taken me
quite some time even to get to writing this interview!

Where do you see steem and steemit in 5 years?

I honestly don’t know, and I don’t like to make predictions. I understand and agree with the
vision put forth by Hive account@ned to be the “blockchain of opportunity” and have 100,000+ developers
creating sites and services built on top of the Steem platform. If sites and services built on
Steem can gain traction outside the existing cryptocurrency community then I believe the
platform as a whole will be very successful.

When you are not in front of your computer helping the Steem community, what other hobbies do you have?

Other than spending time with my family, I really don’t have time for any other hobbies. Steem is
my one and only hobby now. When I did have more time in the past I used to be a gamer, and I
do miss that. But at least now I have incorporated that old hobby into my new hobby by creating
#SteemMonsters!

What is one thing that most people don't know about you and tell us more about yourself?

Nothing is really coming to mind here...at least nothing interesting. I’ve been pretty open and
public about myself and there’s not that much to tell! I guess people can let me know in the
comments if there’s something specific they want to know about.

With some of the current problems Steem faces, what, if any solutions do you see?

I think most of the problems that we see people complain about time and time again in posts are
either superficial issues at the UI level - for example the trending page - or issues stemming
from unreasonable expectations - about it being “too hard” to earn rewards.
At the core blockchain level I see scalability as the biggest issue. Steemit, Inc is working hard
on that as their top priority so I’m confident that will be resolved. On a macro level, like I said
earlier, I think the biggest problem is whether Steem-based sites and services can really gain
traction outside the existing, and relatively small, cryptocurrency community.
I think that will come down to some innovative and clever user interfaces, good marketing
campaigns, and more regulatory clarity and understanding around earning cryptocurrency and
converting it to and from fiat currencies.

With so many other tools and sites having been created for the Steemit user, if you had to pick one, which would be the most useful for a new Steemian to use?

I’m not sure if this counts, but I would recommend joining a new user support group on Discord
such as MSP/PALnet. I think the most important thing for new users of any platform is to have a
good place to go for help and support. Being involved in a real community of like-minded people
focused around the same goals does wonders for engagement and retention.

Is there any project you have at hand now or you already have one?

Steem Monsters!

What is the biggest mistake new users make when joining Steemit?

The biggest mistake I typically see is people not taking the time to learn about how the platform
works. I don’t mean at a technical level, but at a high level - what are the different currencies,
where do post rewards come from, what makes certain users more successful than others, etc.
If you don’t understand how things work it will be really hard to succeed here and will lead to
confusion and frustration.

Are you a fan of cryptocurrency?

You bet!

Besides being heavily invested in steem, which other cryptocurrency do you fancy?

At the risk of ruffling some feathers, I am really excited about the potential of EOS. Steem is an
application specific blockchain, and I think it’s great at its application, but there are so many
more great things that can be done on the blockchain outside of the content publishing space.
Many of those things can’t be done, or at least not well, on Ethereum currently due to the
relatively slow speed and transaction fees, and EOS is now making them possible.
That being said, I am 100% focused on Steem and have no plans to do anything with EOS, and
I’m really only vaguely familiar with how it actually works. Nevertheless, I am excited for the
possibilities it may open up in the DApp space.

What will be the implications of government having a say in crypto world?

Governments will always have their say in what their citizens and corporations can do. It’s no
different in crypto than it was with the rise of the internet or any other technological innovations.
They will be slow and draft confusing and poorly worded regulations with a lot of special
interests in mind, but at the end of the day the technology will continue to push forward.

If there was a worldwide internet and cellular blackout for a week, what would you do for those 7 days?

Probably sleep a lot...I don’t do that enough. And maybe exercise...

If you could only vote for one witness (not yourself) who would it be and why?

I don’t want to name anyone specifically. There are a lot of great witnesses that are worthy of
being named here. I would say that when choosing a witness to vote for, just think about what
the Steem platform needs in order to be successful over the long term and choose the
witnesses who you feel are best working towards those goals.

In 5 sentences or less, tell steemians why you deserve their vote?

This would be the same as my answer to the question above - think about what the Steem
platform needs in order to be successful, and vote for the witnesses who you feel are doing the
most to make that happen.

If you could give advice to new steem(it) user's just starting out on steemit, what would it be?

Spend the time to really learn and understand as much as possible about how the Steem
platform works. The more you know and understand the better decisions you will make and the
more successful you will be.

If you could have one super power, what would it be?

I would want the power to be able to know the price of cryptocurrencies in the future! Not even
to just make money trading them, but just to know that I’m not crazy for spending so much of my
time and energy on this space.

It is awesome finally having you on the show Hive account@yabapmatt Thanks so much for creating time for meet our steemit witness. Do have a wonderful day

Thank you for having me, and for publishing this series of witness interviews! It’s really
important that the community is able to get to know the witnesses that are running the platform
so that they can make intelligent voting decisions.