Gtg, or “Gandalf The Grey”, has risen from the ranks of humble stand-by witnesses, and was, at the time I began the research for this series, the #1 witness!
His expertise in IT security makes him a reliable performer for one of the top witness spots, as he can be trusted to maintain a high standard of system security for any witness or seed node he operates.
Gandalf has been involved both in improving the Steemit website’s securities via programming, and helping to educate others on network and witness security via his blog. He composed one of the earliest Steemit guides on witness node security and protection from DDOS attacks.
Much of his time remains devoted to helping users with security, and he regularly finds tens-of-thousands of imporoperly secured Steem and Steem accounts. His transfer history quickly shows it, with non-stop messages like this: “You have leaked your private owner/active key to the public putting your account at risk. Your active key was changed to prevent further damage, however your owner key was changed already.“
In other words, if you are a scammer or thief, you shall not pass.
In the past, Gandalf has given out delegations to new users for free to help increase minnow engagement on the platform. He has been around most of Steemit’s life, and continued to blog during periods when his witness updates produced as much as $988 and as little as 41 cents.
Gandalf helped to secure a 10% airfaire discount for all the users planning a trip to Steemfest.
Gandalf holds 154,000 SP and is not powering down.
Gtg’s Current Witness Update: https://steemit.com/witness-category/@gtg/4addfq-gtg-witness-log
Gtg’s Original Witness Thread: https://steemit.com/witness-category/@gtg/witness-gtg
Gtg’s Witness Security Thread: https://steemit.com/witness-category/@gtg/heavy-duty-witness-node-infrastructure
Most Recent Private Key Thread: https://steemit.com/steem/@gtg/memos-keys-and-passwords-balrogs-and-fields-of-despair-be-safe-almost-usd100k-wasn-t
If you have any additions or errata for this post, please let me know! I will see that they are voted to the top of the comments, and will make the appropriate edits (if possible).
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