Proposal to increase witness voting participation on Steem

in utopian-io •  7 years ago  (edited)

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This great thumbnail was created by a fellow Steemian @flauwy.

Introduction

The Steem community has often voiced the concern that there isn't enough participation in the witness voting process by new and currently active Steemians. This is an important part of the Steem ecosystem that is integral to the safety and robustness of the Steem platform, and it should be improved in order to help Steem grow and reach new milestones.

Proposal

I propose that there is a financial reward/incentive for Steemians to participate in the witness selection process whereby the voters would receive anywhere from 0.1% to 5% (or more) of the witness' witness category post rewards as beneficiary payout rewards.

This proposal also involves adding the following extra columns to the https://steemit.com/~witnesses page:

  • Short witness biography and information with link to the witness' main blog page

  • Witness server and seed server specifications

  • Witness price feed info and missed blocks statistics

  • Witness Github contribution history

  • Witness' witness category post history and associated post rewards

Example

Bob is a Steem witness that operates a witness and a seed node, and contributes regularly on Github and on posts witness updates as well as personal posts on the Steem platform.

Alice is a new Steemian that wishes to grow her blogging business and decided to join Steem and make it her primary content creation and distribution platform. Alice would also like to support the Steem platform by voting for witnesses that contribute to the platform. She would then look at the https://steemit.com/~witnesses page and see all of the existing witnesses' information, but also their respective server specifications, their Github contributions and their posts as well as the post rewards associated with their witness posts.

Alice would then select up to 30 witnesses that she would like to support with her vote and would receive the associated witness post rewards beneficiary payouts.

Benefits

The benefits of this proposal are primarily twofold:

  • To increase the witness voting participation on behalf of the Steem community

  • To make sure that the active and contributing Steem witnesses are being recognized and rewarded by the community

Conclusion

This proposal would go a long way to increase the participation of Steemians in the witness selection process, and help the platform to grow sustainably and efficiently by incentivizing Steemians to support the consistently contributing Steem witnesses.



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You can increase participation if you make it more attractable to people who don't have money to buy in to steem. If you are a whale, why not up vote that new guy with 100 percent vote so that he is encouraged to create great content and hopefully when things improve for him or her , they will make a investment into the steem ecosystem.

I have been on steem for almost a year and I still don't know how to change my allocation of voting power, nor do I care to, but every whale seems to know how.

You got a 100.00% Upvote and Resteem from @ebargains, as well as upvotes from our curation trail followers!

If you are looking to earn a passive no hassle return on your Steem Power, delegate your SP to @ebargains by clicking on one of the ready to delegate links:
50SP | 100SP | 250SP | 500SP | 1000SP | 5000SP | Custom Amount

You will earn 80% of the voting service's earnings based on your delegated SP's prorated share of the service's SP pool daily! That is up to 38.5% APR! You can also undelegate at anytime.

We are also a very profitable curation trail leader on https://steemauto.com/. Follow @ebargains today and earn more on curation rewards!

Thanks for the advice. Its baby steps at the moment, once I get to 20 steem I can start thinking about 100 or 250 lol and delegating that steem in turn

Agree 100% with you. I regularly upvote minnows just for the sake of distributing the wealth on Steem. More whales need to realize that the strength and value of a network, or token/currency for that matter, is strongly correlated to how well the wealth is distributed on the said network, and how certain positive network reinforcing behaviors are incentivized.

Regarding the voting power allocation, your account needs to have over ~500 Steem Power in it in order to have the voting strength slider appear.

Gave your comment a 100% upvote to help out :)

Cheers!

LOL that's why I don't know how to do it, makes sense. Thanks for the upvote. I just hope that one day steem becomes more content driven, that way it can eventually take on the likes of YouTube.

You should have at least mentioned @flauwy for using his own created thumbnail!

Yeah, you wrote image source - but come on ..

very good comments.

This is very good. I will try.

Hello @ebargains, your contribution have been approved.

Thank you.


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[utopian-moderator]

Hey @zoneboy, I just gave you a tip for your hard work on moderation. Upvote this comment to support the utopian moderators and increase your future rewards!

You got a 100.00% Upvote and Resteem from @estream.studios, as well as upvotes from our curation trail followers!

If you are looking to earn a passive no hassle return on your Steem Power, delegate your SP to @estream.studios by clicking on one of the ready to delegate links:
50SP | 100SP | 250SP | 500SP | 1000SP | 5000SP | Custom Amount

You will earn 80% of the voting service's earnings based on your delegated SP's prorated share of the service's SP pool daily! That is up to 38.5% APR! You can also undelegate at anytime.

We are also a very profitable curation trail leader on https://steemauto.com/. Follow @estream.studios today and earn more on curation rewards!

You got a 100.00% Upvote and Resteem from @singing.beauty, as well as upvotes from our curation trail followers!

If you are looking to earn a passive no hassle return on your Steem Power, delegate your SP to @singing.beauty by clicking on one of the ready to delegate links:
50SP | 100SP | 250SP | 500SP | 1000SP | 5000SP | Custom Amount

You will earn 80% of the voting service's earnings based on your delegated SP's prorated share of the service's SP pool daily! That is up to 38.5% APR! You can also undelegate at anytime.

We are also a very profitable curation trail leader on https://steemauto.com/. Follow @singing.beauty today and earn more on curation rewards!

You got a 100.00% Upvote and Resteem from @ebargains, as well as upvotes from our curation trail followers!

If you are looking to earn a passive no hassle return on your Steem Power, delegate your SP to @ebargains by clicking on one of the ready to delegate links:
50SP | 100SP | 250SP | 500SP | 1000SP | 5000SP | Custom Amount

You will earn 80% of the voting service's earnings based on your delegated SP's prorated share of the service's SP pool daily! That is up to 38.5% APR! You can also undelegate at anytime.

We are also a very profitable curation trail leader on https://steemauto.com/. Follow @ebargains today and earn more on curation rewards!

I agree wholeheartedly that witnesses would be well to educate others of their existence, contribution, incentives, etc. on a regular basis. When it comes to Steemit, there's a lot of "everything everywhere" since it's decentralized. Many don't really seem they feel they need to, because what determines their top 20hood is really the large votes.

I am curious if half the minnowbase voted, if it would be enough weight to push a witness into the top 20 over those who have multiple whale votes.

Not to mention, some of the witnesses are doing a great job and already have a lot of witness votes. For instance, Jesta has 20K minnow votes. Not sure if that's because of the awesomeness, or just because people like to pick #1.

I think I'm going to post about something similar. Perhaps I'll start interviewing witnesses.

You got a 10.00% Upvote and Resteem from @ebargains, as well as upvotes from our curation trail followers!

If you are looking to earn a passive no hassle return on your Steem Power, delegate your SP to @ebargains by clicking on one of the ready to delegate links:
50SP | 100SP | 250SP | 500SP | 1000SP | 5000SP | Custom Amount

You will earn 80% of the voting service's earnings based on your delegated SP's prorated share of the service's SP pool daily! That is up to 38.5% APR! You can also undelegate at anytime.

We are also a very profitable curation trail leader on https://steemauto.com/. Follow @ebargains today and earn more on curation rewards!

Love the idea about interviewing the witnesses and posting the interview transcripts on Steem! You should definitely go through with that plan @omitaylor.

As @jerrybanfield explained in one of his videos a few months ago, the minnows do not affect the witness rankings at all. All that witnesses need to do is get the votes of 1-5 largest SP holders and that is it.

SP wealth is overly concentrated, and that is a major weakness of the Steem network. I do think that this SP distribution issue will get better with time as more whales contribute to different Steem projects and also distribute their wealth to deserving Steemians.

Yeah I watched the video by @jerrybanfield as I was researching what it takes to become a witness. And I get the message, however, anyone can become a whale just by putting more money in. So a minnow today may not be a minnow tomorrow. And the reverse is true as well. A whale today could be a minnow tomorrow.

I've always wondered though, what happens if a whale dies with their vote in tact and nobody changes it or powers down their account. Lol.

The witness structure also may not be forever. Who knows one day if a fork doesn't introduce a split in witnesses or even fewer witnesses.

Power is very circumstantial and relative, as the dropped blocked of yesterday's fiasco has proved.

That being said, I've already started brainstorming on the concept of interviewing witnesses. I would want the outcomes posted not only on Steem, but an evergreen domain forever. I have ideas and I'll keep you in the loop if you're interested in being updated on it. That's if witnesses are willing to participate. I'm thinking the first round should interview the top 100 witnesses if possible plus any willing to participate- and have a standard set of questions that allow everyone to compare answers side by side: sort of like a political campaign for 20 presidents with a set of "issues" and other information like their vision of the direction of the blockchain and the assets built on it. Who knows, maybe some of the whales will consider the information as well. And like I said, you never know who'll be a big whale one day. 😀

Hello @ebargains, this contribution has been declined for the following reasons:

  1. It lacks technical details
  2. The idea lacks some vital information (Algorithm) on how it could be implemented

The idea on its own is not trivial as I believe every user should engaged in voting for witnesses. However, the reasons mentioned above makes it not valid and can not be rewarded.

Thank you for using utopian.


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[utopian-moderator]

Hello @knowledges, the algorithm is actually suggested in the "Proposal" section: "propose that there is a financial reward/incentive for Steemians to participate in the witness selection process whereby the voters would receive anywhere from 0.1% to 5% (or more) of the witness' witness category post rewards as beneficiary payout rewards."

The actual % would have to be set by a Steem HF update, and it would have to be a fixed percentage for all witnesses.

On the technical side of things, there isn't much else to add since the beneficiary payout feature is already implemented, and all that needs to be done is for the witness category posts to have their beneficiary payouts set to let's say 1% and to be payed out to all of the Steem accounts that voted for them as a witness. It is all very straight forward and should be easily implemented.

And the additional witness information to be also available on the Witness voting page is a no-brainer:

"This proposal also involves adding the following extra columns to the https://steemit.com/~witnesses page:

  • Short witness biography and information with link to the witness' main blog page

  • Witness server and seed server specifications

  • Witness price feed info and missed blocks statistics

  • Witness Github contribution history

  • Witness' witness category post history and associated post rewards"

I think these changes will be implemented in the future, but what matters is when will that future become reality; in a few months or in a few years.

And @zoneboy already approved the contribution...

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Wow, I totally love this idea in the sense that it increase community participation and is more like a win-win for both party unlike the present system. I support!

Indeed! This would be a win-win-win for the community, the Steem network and for the witnesses!

This idea is so cool and should be recognized and accepted and enforced.

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image

It's taking me a minute just to have voted for 4 of my witnesses but I read up on who I am voting for and also what they are contributing to the blockchain and platforms. I wish there were a whole section on witnesses that would have people talk about them so that we could learn more about the pros and cons of each witness and make it easier to learn of them. We all need to vote for witnesses but some are better for certain goals that some people have, and others are more of, wow you are really cool, I'll vote for you, types. If more people had an area where they could learn about witnesses I think they would vote for more witnesses.

Right. The https://steemit.com/~witnesses page should be expanded to include not only the server specs and github/posting info, but also short little witness bios.

Most witnesses do post their bios on their respective blog pages, but a short version of it should also be available on the witness voting page as well.

Hi I need some clarification about what witnesses are and what their job is?I am new in the world of Steem

who does not live to serve, does not serve to live.
In my opinion, the lack of promotion, value and service for the public diminishes participation, we must increase the Witness Campaign, for the majority of the Steemit community, which are new. I like it, your point of view, thanks for sharing.

I guess I haven't voted for any witnesses because I don't see a reason. Just figured it would be something taken care of by those who are more active in the "political" side of steem so to speak. No sense that my participation in voting is necessary, will be rewarded, or that it is even meaningful. Kind of like voting in politics. There will be witnesses whether I vote or not. Now financial incentive... that sounds appealing.

You got a 3.96% upvote from @postpromoter courtesy of @steem.services!

Want to promote your posts too? Check out the Steem Bot Tracker website for more info. If you would like to support the development of @postpromoter and the bot tracker please vote for @yabapmatt for witness!

That's nice of you.. Have made quality posts but got less attention from the whales.. You said it all

The Steemit platform is for everybody, and the Steem should also be for everybody. But there are a lot more minnows and planktons then there are whales. And for minnows and planktons it is not very clear what witnesses do, so I think the witnesses have to integrate a whole lot more into the community. After all they are people! And what do people like? Precisely, other people they can relate to! When you come here on Steemit in the beginning, everything is really overwhelming, and if somebody asks you to vote for a witness then at that time, how do you know what to do, why you have to do so, or who you have to vote for, if none of the witnesses is visible for you as a plankton or minnow. Witnesses have to be more visible. I've been on Steemit for four months now, and I've never spoken to one witness :) Why should I vote for them?

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I think the problem could be that new people don't even know what witnesses are, not sure if there is an article in faq, but it would probably be good to make it more obvious, to include an article about them in welcome page maybe

You can expand cooperation on the off chance that you make it more attractable to individuals who don't have cash to purchase in to steem. On the off chance that you are a whale, for what reason not up vote that new person with 100 percent vote so he is urged to make awesome substance and ideally when things enhance for him or her , they will make a speculation into the steem biological community.

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Did I get this right, you're proposing to distribute the witness-category post rewards from a witness to those who voted for him? Wouldn't the most natural reaction be that people vote those with the highest post rewards? Seeing the state of Steem as it is now, this is the least thing I would want for witnesses who care.

The 1% beneficiary payout incentive is a very small incentive that positively reinforces a behavior that the Steem network is trying to promote.

And people also must screen the witnesses beyond only the post reward payouts obviously, hence the extra bios of the witnesses, their server specs and info on projects they are involved in will help Steemians choose who they would like to support with their witness vote.

Are you PURPOSING a WITNESS protection program?

Well that's right. Steemians somehow must be rewarded when voting witnesses given that steemians will give their honest vote and witnesses are certain to do their job as witnesses.

Agreed. This extra added incentive for Steemians to witness vote goes a long way to reinforce the Steem platform and network by keeping all participants more active and accountable.

I agree that all can develop in steam.provide motivation acceptable to steam users.thanks for sharing

The proposal is very cool and very large
You must really try it
Thank you you are a very special person

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Coz other then a very few like 3-5, rest of the witness are "Good for Nothing"