We got back from vacation last night and ordered some Chinese takeout on the drive home from the airport. My 6 year old asked me to read the fortune cookie she picked, and I had a good laugh:

If I picked that one, I'd say it's already happened! My witness account @lukestokes.mhth is currently ranked 10th!

Thank you!

I'm so honored, grateful, and amazed to have so much support. I really appreciate it.

On a more humorous note, here's my face after seeing the hole in my vintage steemit shirt grow larger:

Okay, now on to my witness update.

The Blockchain Is Growing

With the price increase of SBD and STEEM, we're seeing a lot of usage on the blockchain. That means the blockchain is growing fast and requires a lot more memory. My /dev/shm monitoring script is serving me well as you can see here:

January 3rd:

January 4th:

January 5th:

Today, I just updated the configs and shm sizes on my witness server, backup witness, and seed node to give them all more room to grow.

More Delegations!

As I mentioned last month, I've decided (for now) to delegate some Steem Power from my witness account to projects I feel are bringing value to the STEEM ecosystem. If you have any thoughts on who else I should support, please let me know (but read the original post first). I'm also open to criticisms of my support choices.

Today, I removed my personal delegations and updated my witness account delegations. Here's the latest:

• I removed 1 MV from @steemiteducation from my personal account and added another 2 MV for a total of 4 MV (about 2,000 SP).

• I removed 2 MV from @minnowsupport from my personal account and added another 4 MV for a total of 6 MV (about 3,000 SP).

• I added 2 MV each to @stach, @naijaboost, and @steemnaira which appear to be working hard to help those in Nigeria. I really like the idea of using the STEEM blockchain to help those who have less access to resources than I currently enjoy (and try not to take for granted).

• I added 2 MV to @steem-ambassador, as I think @starkerz and the team he's building has been doing a great job with #promo-steem to promote the STEEM blockchain to both investors and creators.

• I added 2 MV to @spaminator. They are working hard to stop spam on the network.

That's it for now. I have a lot of witness communication to catch up on as I've been on vacation for the last two and a half weeks. 2018 is going to be an exciting time for STEEM!

Current Economic Witness Settings

I decreased my registration fee to 0.100 STEEM in response to the rising price of STEEM. If the price of STEEM drops back down, I'll adjust it accordingly.

SBD APR	Bias	Reg fee
0%	0	0.1

More Updates

• December's Witness Engagement Report showed 25.12% engagement for accounts with > 100,000 VESTS.

• I've continued to run the Weekly Exchange Transfer Report for 73 weeks now! Check it out every weekend to see who is cashing out and who is buying in.

Thanks again for your encouragement and support!

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As of this post, I'm currently holding position 10!

If you want to know more about what witnesses do check out:

• Steemit is Free, But Your Witness Vote Determines its Future

You can read my witness announcement post here:

• Vote Luke Stokes for Witness as lukestokes.mhth!

My previous witness updates:

• Witness Delegation Plans for lukestokes.mhth (December 6th, 2017)
• Witness Update - lukestokes.mhth - December 1st, 2017
• Witness Update - lukestokes.mhth - October 26th, 2017
• Witness Update - lukestokes.mhth - September 2nd, 2017
• Witness Update - lukestokes.mhth - July 19th, 2017
• Witness Update - lukestokes.mhth - July 14th, 2017
• Witness Update - lukestokes.mhth - June 19th, 2017
• Witness Update - 6/6/2017 - More Human Than Human

I only post witness updates when I have something worth sharing, but I'm always available if you have a question or concern. I can be reached on Discord or Rocketchat.

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Luke Stokes is a father, husband, business owner, programmer, STEEM witness, and voluntaryist who wants to help create a world we all want to live in. Visit UnderstandingBlockchainFreedom.com

_{I'm a Witness! Please vote for @lukestokes.mhth}