So I got into spewing on steemit.chat this morning. No real agenda, just butting in here and there waiting on a monero pool I host to finish syncing and figured I'd troll around a bit and get to know some of you on the chat. Somehow the discussion went left and some participants started throwing their balls on the table shooting off about who does what and how much of this and that so and so has on steemit. Mind you, most of the people speaking were friendly with an extra special thanks to markymark and guiltyparties for actually responding to my nagging questions. . Someone asked me an off the wall question to which I didn't have an answer to at the time albeit a good question. The question really caught me off guard. It was along the lines of "What do you bring to the table here on steemit?" . . . Now sure I could have defended myself with college degrees and financial reports, and semi-success stories. In light of the situation and being new to the network and all, I didn't want to make any enemies even though I felt trapped in a corner with no response. Plus, the question was valid. Valid indeed! Whether it was meant to be offensive or not.
After a bit of pondering, (and reading a ton of steemit posts and technical guides) I decided that I would make a contribution. But what would that be? What could I provide to steemit? What does steemit need that it doesn't already have? Now before I talk about what it is I'm going to "bring to the table" ( initially at least), out of respect to everyone who has made positive and civic contributions to the steemit network in one way or the other, (Some more than others that seem to deserve it) I'd like to say thanks for giving me this opportunity to find... fit in. . submit posts with grammatical errors.... or fail. Maybe even add that Steemit is nothing short of brilliant and the technology behind it is phenomenal. So far it appears to actually work, which is far more than I can say from some other blockchain based technologies I've been heavily vested in the past. That being said. . .
A Bit About Me
I'm A 29 year old college graduate with some success building websites, apps, and scripts on linux and windows based systems. I also have experience with modular autonomous systems and robotics platforms. I have built and managed servers from the ground up for both enterprise and non-profit grade organizations. I have been doing this regularly for about 10 years and more recently started building crypto nodes and seeds for ethereum, litecoind, monerod (hardest one I ever did), and the mighty bitcoind. I present this information not to belittle or make light weight of the efforts of others who are less technically inclined than I myself am. It is not my intention to place myself on any sort of pedastal, however in my opinion, I believe everyone has some purpose or another and I hope that my credential fully qualifies me for the contribution that I am about to make to the steemit network. . . .Civic Duties - First Thing 1st
I started doing some research on witnesses and seeds and how they work FOR steemit. . . . I considered my technical background and the feasibility of being able to actually pull one, the other, or both of them out of my hat. After about 72hours total, a pound of coffee, and little to no sleep, here is what I have to present to you the steemit community.One Seed Coming Up - I built the seed first because upon checking the list, there were only about 36 listed worldwide and over half of those were owned by witnesses (whom are encouraged to maintain both a witness as well as a seed). The other half seemed to have dismal availability or were completely unavailable altogether (At least they were when I first began syncing but that may be different now and hopefully for the better) so it seemed like building a seed would be the first thing to do out of the two for my little project. Also, kudos to those that attempt to maintain that seed list btw. I think @Followbtcnews , 
seed.chainchopper.com:2001
The seed address is public so I presume it's safe to distribute. I'd also like to package up a recent snapshot of the blockchain/data as to ease some of the strain on
who provided the initial DL_Blocks for both my servers *(thanks man)*.
- The specs for the seed server are as follows *For those who care*
- 2x Xeon Cpu
- 32gb Ram (though the system only appears to be using 1gb so perhaps I over-killed that one?)
- 250gb SSD HDD
- Ubuntu Xenial
One Witness - The witness has the exact same specs as the seed node barring 32gb more ddr and 1 extra core. It can handle the work of any other witness including those in the top 20 in case of attack or failure as it should. For privacy reasons I cannot disclose the location of the steemit witness publicly, however you can vote for it if you like what I'm doing and believe in it.
Disclaimer. . . I do not proclaim to be the authority or expert on all aspects linux, blockchain, or steemit. To be honest, I just joined not long ago and decided to contribute in this manner because it is built into my nature and the type of person that I am. Growing up a military brat on Camp Lejeune, My gramps often had me and my siblings' time locked on weekends to do what? Contribute to the community we live in. We'd be riding on the back of a pickup truck going to some site where he and a bunch of his Marine buddies were building housing for homeless and low income families in and about our neighborhood. Even though there were eight mouths to feed in our single income family, my gramps never asked for anything in return and I'll follow suit by not asking for anything except to be acknowledged as a contributor and peer among you guys and other witnesses. I never make any promises that I cannot keep therefore I won't make any. First and foremost, I built these nodes in an effort to protect the network and myself from a multitude of possible disruptions. That was and is my main agenda here. Secondly, as a developer, I'd like to use the technology to expand on some of the projects that I've been working on as well as create new ones using the steemit blockchain so it makes sense for me to have those pieces there. Alas, the witness is listed, so in the case that it is delegated as one who should get to vote when those times come, rest assured that I should be more than qualified to not only handle the task, but also make sure that things not only look good on paper but will actually work for everyone both inside and outside of our boxes. That's just me being the type of person I am so if you're a good witness and overall a good person, I look forward to joining your ranks and am delighted by this growth opportunity.. On another note, If you're a shitty witness.. . . (And you know who you are) Then you better fuckin' beware. To most people this will be a sleeper post without a doubt. They'll blaze past it and or down-vote it not understanding exactly how they were just able to do that. I contend that i was not paid or sponsored by anyone at steemit for these contributions. I paid for them out of my own(limited) funds from my own business endeavors. I am also not affiliated with any other steemit account, witness, organization, group or what have you and enter as an unbiased sole proprietor . I am extremely dedicated and passionate about anything I do I also won't exclude the possibility that the necessity of what i have to offer is tenuous at best. At least for me, the next time some one asks me "What do you bring to the table for steemit?" I'll be able to hold my head up high and answer "Poof, I just made our network bigger".. But no, Honestly. No matter who your witness is, we've all contributed heftily to the network regardless if their intention is profiteering , popularity or power the resources provided by the witnesses and seeds are there for everyone to consume and that is the reality of it simply put. We are the proverbial backbone of the network hands down. Lastly, I'll add that I don't need to eat, sleep, and shit off of this server. It's yours. It belongs to the community. And it will stay there and be maintained as long as the community supports it. Lets face it, some of you may want a witness+seed and perhaps haven't the time nor money to invest in setting your own up. If that is the case, then by all means vote it and they'll stay there.
*** PS... If anyone has access to optimal RPC resources for lease, please let me know so that I can optimize server costs for our witness. I know some of the top witnesses operate hosts so perhaps this is even more of a possibility. Keep in mind that Everyone's goal here is the same regardless of how they wish to contribute. Thanks to everyone for reading and excuse my grammar.
Just Click The Above Image If You Approve This Witness And Seed.