This question of whether to vote or not to vote for has been a real vex for me. I should admit here it has given me sleepless nights. Am sure many stemians are disturbed by this witness thing too.
Many have not voted for any single witness. When I discovered this, I chose a proxy to do the voting for me.
Why?
My inability to know the witnesses.
My inability to know the duties and responsubilities of witnesses.
So I needed a person I could trust to vote on my behalf.
Witnesses on steemit are not people who see an event like a crine or accident take place. No!
- He or she is a person who plays the crucial part of how the steem network works.
Not all witnesses are active in the activities of the steemit network. They may never appear on the site nor create blogs but are witnesses.
Who Is A Witness?
On the Steem blockchain, witnesses serve a role of validating signatures and timestamping transactions by including them in blocks. A block is any group of transactions (posts, votes, transfers, etc) which update the state of the database. Each time a witness produces a block, they are paid for their service. If a witness fails to produce a block, then they are not paid, and may even be voted out.
Every round of block production begins with the shuffling of 21 witnesses: the top 20 witnesses (by vote), plus one randomly-selected standby witness. Each is given a turn to produce a single block at a fixed rate of one block every 3 seconds. If a witness does not produce a block in their time slot, then that time slot is skipped, and the next witness produces the next block.
https://steemd.com/witnesses
A witness is therefore a person who:-
. Operates a witness server which produces blocks. Blocks are simply transactions like posts, votes, transfers e.t.c.
. A witness publishes a price feed of STEEM/USD on the network.
. The other role is of consensus. Consensus mechanism is called Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS)
How Does One Become A Witness?
One need to have servers that can produce blocks. Then he is voted by stemians to rise in rank.
Each time a witness produces a block, they are paid for the service.
The top 20 earn about 250 SP per day and those between position 21-59 earn more than an average of 50 sp per day.
Supposing you do not vote?
This is like voting or not voting in elections, others will vote and may bring in wrong people.