STEEM WITNESSES: Who are they? What do they do and how do you influence them?
Steemit is a website in Blockchain and as such, it is a good social media that operates on a powerful network called Steem and has similarities with Bitcoin.
Did you know that Steemit is not controlled by everyone of us? Yes, we are responsible for what we see in Steemit and we do it through Witnesses or Witnesses we choose.
We'll see who Witnesses is, what they do and how you can influence it.
Who is Witness?
Witness is someone who plays an important role in how the STEEM network functions. Witness / Witness has the same role as Miners / Miner role against Bitcoin.
Witness STEEM is the person who operates the witness server (which generates the block), and issues the STEEM / USD price feed to the network.
What does the Witness do?
Witnesses have various tasks they face for STEEM and Steemit networks. Their task ranges from block production to approving content and documentation.
Let's discuss it.
Block production / manufacture.
Witnesses are responsible for making Blocks and this is the most important aspect of their work; documenting every post, vote, transfer etc. and placing the same in the block and documented on the block.
Block production is done every 3 seconds and rounds can have 21 blocks produced by different witnesses. After 63 seconds the cycle begins again and this is to ensure participation in the block-making process by all witnesses.
steemit-community-witness
Price feed
Witnesses are responsible for the production and maintenance of bait prices. This is the second most important aspect of their role as Witnesses as they do this to ensure that STEEM Dollars are always worth 1 US Dollar in STEEM using a 7 day exchange.
They are now also pushing to set an APR that should be an incentive for users to hold their SBDs longer. Currently, the interest rate is 0%.
DPOS / Consensus
Consensus or Evidence of Violation Consisting means that witnesses are responsible for encouraging new Steemit versions so everyone can use them. The witness decides whether the new version will be activated on the node they are running. The required level of agreement is 67%, ie at least 13 witnesses must approve the change before it is done.
Is the Witness paid?
A witness is paid proportionately to how high they are in the witness ratings, excluding the top 19 witnesses (who get 1 block every ~ 63 seconds). The STEEM block is valued at STEEM Power and is worth 1 STEEM Power. This means the witness gets their salary in SP and not STEEM or SBD.
How many blocks can be produced? A 30th-ranked witness can produce as many as 4 blocks / hour, compared to a 50-point witness, which can result in less than 1 block / hour.
How can you influence the Witness?
You can influence the types of witnesses cervantes you want to see with their Voting. Witnesses are moved through ranks by users who have the power to do that and the power is done through the Voting system.
Each user has 30 voting slots and can freely use them to get some sort of witness who will continue to run the STEEM Network well for them.
The counting of your voice as it is said in the centralized world and here, too, is definitely important because as a decentralized society, power is in your hands to create the community you want.
Its interesting how many people do not vote for a witness or vote for a proxy to do it for them. Witnesses are an important part of the community that can be measured easily by checking missed blocks and up-time.
What if every witness provided a small percentage of the rewards it earned back to the users that voted for them. This would incentivize users to vote for a reliable witness and help to make witness voting based more on reliability than popularity.
The users that voted for a witness would receive a portion of the reward based on the amount of steem power they own. I think this would help to encourage witness voting and also reward those that make the effort to vote.
- If you are not voting for a witness consider setting me up as your proxy so your witness votes will follow mine.
How to choose a Witness?
Voting for witnesses is easy once you are aware and sure of the witnesses you think and know is doing a good job for the community. Simply go to this link [WITNESS](https://steemit.com/~ witness) and select some witnesses.
Should you care to choose a witness?
Yes, you should and in fact, immediately point out that you understand the role these groups play in ensuring a productive and vibrant community for a creative community.