What Are Steem Witnesses and Why Should You Care?

brandonfrye (64) in steem • 7 years ago (edited)

What Are Steem Witnesses and Why Should You Care?

If you've been on Steemit for any length of time then you're sure to have heard the term "witness" thrown around. What does Witness even mean and why should you care? In today's video I'll break this topic down for you in a simple-to-understand way and explain why this is actually a very important concept that everyone in the Steemit community should have a basic understanding of.

Join the Steem Witness Forum this Saturday at 11am EST

Which witnesses will be on?

@jesta (chainbb, steemdb, vessel)
@good-karma (esteem)
@roelandp (Steemfest)
@aggroed (Minnow Support Project)
@anyx (Steem Cleaners)
@ausbitbank (Minnow Support Project)
@lukestokes (Exchange Transfer Report)
@someguy123 (Privex)

This panel discussion will also feature backup witness @followbtcnews (@followbtcnews co-runs his witness with @crimsonclad).

Click here to learn more

If you're interested in more videos, tutorials, and how-tos, I encourage you to follow my channel and leave me replies of things you would like to learn about. If I don't know the answer, we'll learn together! :)

- Daily Comment Reward -

Upvote this post
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That's it! It's also a great idea to go ahead and follow my channel so that you don't miss any upcoming posts. You can do that here: https://steemit.com/@brandonfrye

steem steemit blockchain cryptocurrency crypto

7 years ago by brandonfrye (64)

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josteem (58) · 7 years ago

Didn’t know much about witnesses.. thanks for this info .. really enlightening

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1 vote

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bozz (70) · 7 years ago

Great video. I will be honest, I skipped past the part at the beginning where you were talking about the market correction. I think it is easy a lot of times to forget the people that are doing things behind the scenes to make and keep Steemit great.

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1 vote

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Thanks for the feedback @bozz. Yeah, I totally overlooked the whole "witness" thing in the beginning. But I'm glad that I looked into it and now understand how our blockchain functions here. Still a lot to learn but luckily we don't have to know it all. And yes, totally grateful for the people who put in the work to make Steemit a better place.

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dirkboy41 (53) · 7 years ago (edited)

Thanks for another informative video, Brandon! Quick question...do you need to sign up for a blocktrades account? Haven't used it before

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1 vote

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Hey @dirkboy41, no you don't have to have a BlockTrades account to use them. But I do recommend registering with them because it only takes a minute and allows you to view all of your past transactions on their exchange.

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1 vote

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dirkboy41 (53) · 7 years ago

Gotcha, thanks! And I meant to post this on your other video where you talked about buying SP with coinbase and blocktrades.

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edicted (72) · 7 years ago

As a gamer, I think @aggroed is pronounced AG-rowed. In a video game a monster becomes aggro/aggroed when it starts attacking you.

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1 vote

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Ahh, you’re probably right. Thanks for that.

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sushiltiple (52) · 7 years ago

I am actually new to crypto and Steemit so this was a very good explanation of witnesses and also hardforks! So thanks!

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1 vote

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Thanks @sushiltiple, I appreciate the feedback. :)

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gothika47 (48) · 7 years ago

In your video you said to buy the dip so i really want to get some STEEM to power up my account. Is there an easy way to get some since i only have an account on binanse and they don't offer STEEM.

Also i think it will be really hard for me to choose a witnes. I have to look up every one of them and what they do. Also the current climate on the site is full of vote abuse and content flagging some of wich seems to be related to some of the witnesses.

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1 vote

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

You can purchase Steem Power right here on Steemit using Dash, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. Just go into your wallet and click Buy Steem or Steem Power and you'll see the option to send one of those currencies in exchange for Steem Power.

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pjau (63) · 7 years ago

HODL :)

I've been buying the dip on its way down, not the perfect bottom. BUTT ;) when it finally does go back up it will still be really good!

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Heck yeah! We’ll be seeing some good numbers once the markets head back up!

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bachone (54) · 7 years ago

Thanks for that, pretty much made it clear.
I only dont ubderstand why I can choose 30 witnesses.

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

That's a really good question. I'm not sure why it's set at that number exactly. Perhaps somebody can chime in here with more information on why we're set at 30 upvotes.

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1 vote

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pjau (63) · 7 years ago

Probably to stop you voting for 600,000. :)

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bachone (54) · 7 years ago

Sure but why not just 1 witness. 30 seams like alot to vote on.

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pjau (63) · 7 years ago

It's probably just down to the fact they need that many and it just gives you a bigger choice if you think 30 people are deserving of it. A lot of people probably don't vote either. I mean I have only done 1 vote.

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bachone (54) · 7 years ago (edited)

thers that "probably" again, I had several "probabilities" for why, just interested in the answer behind, why 30!?
does you vote count the same if you vote for 30 or for 1, will the votes give the same "power" ?
There is a reason for everything (not always a good one tho)

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lukebrn (58) · 7 years ago

Thanks for the video Brandon. I agree that knowing about witnesses and what they do is important, I did not know much before checking your video out but do now! I'm going to look into them more, and decide who I would like to vote for as witnesses when I learn about them.

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Cool, and yeah it was one of those topics I kind of avoided for a while lol. Not the funnest thing to study (in my opinion) but definitely good stuff to know. And it's nice to know that we have some control over the future of Steemit.

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lukebrn (58) · 7 years ago

Yeah I would agree there, just reading through posts about it now. Agreed! Keep up the great posts, glad to see they're doing well!

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charleswealth (61) · 7 years ago

Wow!. Thanks. I'm new here so, didn't really know the value of witnesses in the community, so I just chose randomly(I'm sure I'd catch up with time)
I enjoyed watching your video though i didn't finish up the 15mins.
Good job.👍

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Excellent, I'm glad that was helpful. And the good news is you can change your witness votes at anytime.

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charleswealth (61) · 7 years ago

Oh, I didn't know that. Thanks Brandon👍

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nachon (49) · 7 years ago

Thanks for the update

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

You're welcome, thanks for the comment! :)

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dearjyoce (58) · 7 years ago

Lots of great witnesses making Steemit an awesome platform. Vote for @steemgigs!

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ncrazed (25) · 7 years ago

Interesting.

I've seen so much guesswork and speculation regarding the crypto market today and you're the first one to point out a sensible pattern.

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Lol, yeah most people are panicking. Even I was a little bit last night... or at least I was trying to make sense of it. Then I saw this article: https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/7qqoav/everybody_relax_heres_the_reason_for_the_dip_and/

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1 vote

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mercurybot (50) · 7 years ago

You got a 36.83% upvote from @mercurybot courtesy of @brandonfrye!

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jrmiller87 (47) · 7 years ago

More great info from the great @brandonfrye! I enjoy your video tutorials and the nuggets of knowledge you leave with every post. Thanks man!

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Hah, thanks man! I appreciate that :)

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bigtom13 (64) · 7 years ago

I'm looking forward to it. The witnesses have a tough nut to crack in the very near future. Something desperately needs to be done to stabilize the bandwidth and it doesn't matter what they do some one is going to be unhappy.

I'm glad it's them and not me.

Thanks for another outstanding post Brandon. I really do appreciate your hard work and effort.

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

True, I thought it was interesting how I posted this today and the site started acting up again. I'm sure they'll get it sorted out though. And yeah, glad it's them and not me. :)

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joydrummer22 (54) · 7 years ago

Thanks for letting us all know about this forum, will be looking forward to hearing from all these witnesses. I'll be joining on saturday and can't wait!

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Excellent, I hope to see you on there!

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the.human.union (48) · 7 years ago

@brandonfrye
As always great info that I was wondering about, now I know the witnesses are very important.
I will vote. Thank you for the time and energy you put into your content.
I did buy altcoins mostly litecoin, tron looks like a good buy right now, can I buy SBDs direct or do I have to always trade for them?
Lynn

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Thanks for the nice comment, Lynn (@the.human.union). Before researching them this week I had no idea how important our witnesses are so I'm glad to hear that you'll be voting. And in order to buy SBD or Steem Power you will need to first get Litecoin, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dogecoin, Dash, or Ethereum. I typically use Ethereum because it's one of the fastest though.

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postpromoter (63) · 7 years ago

You got a 7.66% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @brandonfrye! Want to promote your posts too? Check out the Steem Bot Tracker website for more info. If you would like to support development of @postpromoter and the bot tracker please vote for @yabapmatt for witness!

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t-bam (37) · 7 years ago

Thanks for the info!

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

You're welcome :)

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nostone-unturned (50) · 7 years ago

Nice video, steam witnesses are one of the more cryptic ;) sides of the Steemit platform for new users. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like witnesses are elected representatives of the community. They seem similar to congressmen.

Question about the crypto currency market correction. You mentioned it likely occurred due to the Chinese New Year. Did a similar dip happen around Christmas time in the west?

Keep up the good work.

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Thanks @nostone-unturned. Yes, the Chinese New Year has affected the markets every year for the last 4 years. Take a look at this chart which shows the dips that occurred in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017...

And yes, we saw a pretty steep dip during the U.S. Christmas holiday as well. Seems to be when people are in need of money for presents. This is good to know for future market predictions.

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2 votes

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nostone-unturned (50) · 7 years ago

“This is good to know for future market predictions,” agreed. That is an interesting observation about crypto currencies. Maybe it’s a good idea save extra money for crypto currencies around the big holidays too. I wonder if similar dips happen around the Super Bowl or Independence Day sales?

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michaelluchies (54) · 7 years ago

Thanks Brandon, I had no clue about this other than having heard the term "witness." Thanks for the video and info about witnesses and how to vote.

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

You're very welcome. Glad that was helpful. I wish I could have gotten the info in a bite-sized chunk like this lol. But it's fun learning about all of these things and sharing them with the community.

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mariogiancini (42) · 7 years ago

@brandonfrye I appreciate the time and thought you put into your posts.

I've been reading up about Steemit Witnesses and how they compares to other token miners. This was a very helpful summary.

ALSO, I feel like you should do an AMA of sorts on DLive.io about all the info you've digested about Steemit in the short time you've been on platform. I know I'd watch it ;-)

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Awesome idea and I’ll consider it. I appreciate all of you guys and the feedback you provide!

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poimenpost (47) · 7 years ago

I'll have to remember the Chinese New Year tip- that certainly makes sense. Can Steem witnesses govern content? For instance, could they theoretically remove a block?

Considering Twitter's shadowbanning debacle and what the Cat has been doing to people on here, I'm wondering how reliable and secure the chain is.

Hopefully the community would vote wisely, but what could happen if a witness or group of witnesses decides to go rogue?

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Yeah, apparently this has happened every year for the last 4 years so it should be expected really. I know a lot of folks are pretty rattled by it though lol.

And no, as far as I understand they don't have that kind of control over the network. They are simply running a server with the blockchain on it and being rewarded for processing transactions/blocks. And they generally have to come to a consensus on future changes to the blockchain code.

I'm sure somebody with way more experience with the Steem blockchain could chime in here on that though and provide more details of what control they do and don't have.

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1 vote

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xee95 (47) · 7 years ago

what about if i upvote for you as a steem witnesses becoz you doing great stuff and giving information about steem network ..

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Well I appreciate that thought.. but I don't have a server setup and I'm most likely not going to be getting into the whole witness role. At least I have no plans on it for the time being. But who knows? :)

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booster (68) · 7 years ago

This post has received a 5.47 % upvote from @booster thanks to: @brandonfrye.

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chaddivis (25) · 7 years ago

Thanks for sharing about Steemit witnesses. I didn't know much about it.

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

You're welcome, glad that was helpful!

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dominicdigi (41) · 7 years ago

I didn't know that witnesses make decisions on hard forks. I'll go vote for some now. Thanks!

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

You're welcome! Glad that was helpful. Yeah, just do a little research on the individuals/channels and pick who you think is trying to help the community.

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1 vote

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jongolson (74) · 7 years ago

I appreciate these kind of videos sir. Main reason is because so many of these terms and titles are thrown around Steemit and a lot of us noobs have no idea what it all means. This cleared it up for me big time!

I saw my 30 votes since day one and never understood it or used it. I used 2 so far and plan on being picky for the next 28 lol Earn my vote Witnesses ;) What can you do for us!!!

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Thanks @jongolson, glad this helped. This was one of those subjects I steered clear of for a while lol. And yeah, make them work for it. I'm pretty picky with mine. I've only voted on 4 so far.

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cutemachine (62) · 7 years ago

I hope, I can join the forum.

For those in Europe. It's 5 pm Berlin time.

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Cool, yeah as long as you're awake and around you should be able to get on. I'm going to try and be on there. I'm interested to learn more about our top witnesses and what they're up to.

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jerrybanfield (74) · 7 years ago

Thank you @brandonfrye for making a transfer to me for an upvote of 4.38% on this post! Half of your bid goes to @budgets which funds growth projects for Steem like our top 25 posts on Steem! The other half helps holders of Steem power earn about 60% APR on a delegation to me! For help, will you please visit https://jerrybanfield.com/contact/ because I check my discord server daily? To learn more about Steem, will you please use http://steem.guide/ because this URL forwards to my most recently updated complete Steem tutorial?

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nanogivers (46) · 7 years ago

excellent, excellent video explaining witnesses, I myself been using steemit without knowing really how it all works. thanks

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Excellent, I'm glad that helped. :)

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mahmoud-shafik (42) · 7 years ago

You should do steem cleaners next. They sound like thr hunters of steem😂😂😂

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

I actually did a steem cleaners post a while back. I think they're a great service to have here on the platform for sure! And I'm just starting to really move my videos to @dtube so I'll definitely be creating some tutorials as I become more familiar. I've already got one planned lol. Thanks for your comments and support!

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mahmoud-shafik (42) · 7 years ago

Oh and please start doing a D tube tutorial serieeeees

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droiderly (36) · 7 years ago

Steemit education at its best. Thanks @brandonfrye for creating videos that are professional and easy to watch and understand.

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Thank you, I appreciate that :)

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chris.scustoms (36) · 7 years ago

Thank for the info. I dit vote for 2 witness like you said I voted for owner of application that I use. I like to think it's like saying thank you for your effort

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

Right, I think that's the best way to thank them for the hard work they're putting in for these applications.

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josteem (58) · 7 years ago

I didn’t know much about witnesses and was wondering about it.. thanks for these key info .. really enlightening!

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brandonfrye (64) · 7 years ago

You're welcome @josteem, glad that helped. :)

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gopaalgnair (37) · 7 years ago

Great video @brandonfrye . Didn't know what witnesses were until now. I'll certainly vote for someone who has done a great job for the users of steemit. Kudos for making informative videos! :)

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moohlan (25) · 7 years ago

How can I become a witness?

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