This week the platform passed 1million accounts. That sounds pretty impressive and in some ways it is. We get about 250,000 visits a day and have about 60,000 active users. So, 1million is a nice milestone but we’re still pretty small in the overall picture of the estimated 3.4billion internet users.

That sounds kind of depressing BUT keep in mind, we who are active on this platform are the early adopters and will gain as this sector grows. I remember looking at both Facebook and Twitter in their early days. At the time, I thought it wouldn’t have much appeal, boy was I wrong.

Witnesses Are Important on the Platform

Our witnesses are central to keeping the blockchain up and running. We vote the witnesses into their places. It’s important we know who they are and how they contribute to the platform.

During the Pimp Your Post Thursdays held each week it has become apparent from the discussions many members of the community do not understand who they witnesses are, what they do or even how to vote.

This awareness is what brought about what has become a monthly witness chat where all witnesses and members of the community are invited to come together for a moderated chat.

Previous Chats

There has been two Witness chats in the Steemit Ramble. The first in March was on short notice. Twelve witnesses joined during the chat, another five showed up during the afterchat. I was pretty impressed with their effort. Here is the recording of that chat:

Well, That Was an Interesting Witness Chat

The second chat was held Saturday April 21st. Fourteen witness accounts were present. Two of the partnered accounts were present which brought the total witnesses in attendance up to sixteen. The discussion was lively and at times passionate. Community attendance was high.

The Witness Chat From Saturday April 21st

Saturday May 19th at 11am EDT

This month’s chat will take place in the Steemit Ramble Discord. All witnesses, regardless of their ranking are invited to attend. This is an opportunity to get introduced to the community members who attend and for the community to get a sense of who you are.

A meetup is taking place in Tennessee this weekend. Several witnesses are among those attending. The plan is they will join the discussion while sitting in the same room together. That will be a first and should get interesting.

Members of the community are reminded we can ask for and get views from the witnesses about the issues on the platform. The witnesses are not the governing body for the platform. In many cases they do have more awareness of what is going on and can share some of that knowledge and experience.

One of the topics I have seen discussed by several people on posts during this last month is the question of how much, if any, liability that individual witnesses could be subjected to for content found on the blockchain. I’m curious to hear if any of the witnesses have opinions and concerns on that subject.