Witness Voting Oversimplified

Let’s talk about witnesses.

No, not about which servers they run, or how many gigahoozes their whatchamajiggers have. There are far too many posts floating around Steemit about those things. Right now, I’m not talking to developers, investors, or even upper level witnesses. I’m talking to the majority of users on Steemit - the content creators, community members, planktons, minnows, dolphins, and whales - people who have a vested interest in the future of our shared platform.

How many of us are actively voting for witnesses in methodical, calculated way? Are we making informed decisions? Are we continuously examining our choices and removing votes from dead or inactive witnesses and giving them to people who are looking out for the best interest of the platform?

Are we voting at all?

Votes? Like for the President? What do you even mean, Rhondak?

Every user who signs up with Steemit automatically has 30 witness votes. That’s all you ever get. However, you can remove votes to free up a space on your list and change votes at any time. I’m willing to bet that some people reading this have never used their 30 votes, or even a portion of them. Some may not even know what I’m talking about. If that’s you, you’re exactly the person I hope to reach with this post.

Where Are All the Voters?

One statistic tells us that a mere 27% of Steemit account holders vote for witnesses at all. What about the other three-quarters of the user base? Some might be alternate or “sock puppet accounts,” which are often operated by scammers. But I suspect that many of the nonvoting 73% are people who simply don’t understand the importance of their votes, or what witnesses mean for them directly.

Even though they are elected, witnesses are not politicians in the sense that those of us living in democratic nations understand politics. Witnesses don’t make laws or rules or govern in any traditional form. Their specialized software verifies and validates the blocks that form the blockchain. See, every action you take on the Steem blockchain, such as posting, commenting, or making wallet transactions, is recorded in a ledger made of transaction “blocks.” Those gigahoozes and whatchamajiggers mentioned earlier are the witness server nodes on the blockchain network that make this possible.

Yes, I’m oversimplifying it. On purpose. If you know enough to think I’m dumbing it down way too far, then you probably aren’t the audience I’m talking to. I’ll bet you already vote for your thirty witnesses and I’m very, very grateful. So if that's you, please bear with me. I'm sure you'll appreciate the point I'm about to make.

And That Point Is. . . .

You don’t have to know what a server is or how it works to have a stake and a voice in who operates them on your behalf. You just have to know which people you trust to protect the security, validity, and accuracy of the blockchain. Deciding who you can rely on isn’t easy when it comes to witnesses, because interaction and social participation are not required to do that job. Some witnesses are very private (or very busy with developmental work,) and we see very little of them on Steemit or in any of its communities.

So how do we know if a witness is someone we want to vote for?

Admittedly, this can get tricky, especially if you’re new to the platform and know few people anyway. Currently, there are more than 200 active witnesses to choose from. This doesn’t count a similar number of names who have disabled their witness server and are not operational. We call those “dead witnesses,” and it’s best to avoid voting for them unless you know exactly who they are, why they’re disabled, and when they’ll be coming back online.

There are no easy answers to this problem. But what I can tell you is that networking in the multitude of Discord servers and Steem Chat is the quickest way to meet people and learn the terrain. Witnesses, especially lower level witnesses, tend to be very active. You probably know at least one. If you’re reading this, you probably know me. You can see which witnesses I vote for here. (Click “votes cast.”) Bottom line, is that you can always find savvy users who will be more than happy to share with you who they vote for, and why.

I also imagine that many people reading this are still unclear about what witnesses do and why they matter to regular users, since witnessing blocks affects us only indirectly and even a monkey could do that. Right? Well, there actually is more to it. The realm of witnessing on the Steem blockchain is one of the most brutally political voting microcosms that I’ve ever encountered. More than 300 lower-ranking witnesses compete for a position as backup witnesses for the Top 20, who make decisions by consensus on modifications to the code the blockchain operates on. Many of these people are heavily invested, and it is one heck of a turf war.

If you want to see the lineup of witnesses jockeying for influence, you can inspect the whole thing here. In contrast, the Steemit home page FAQ only references one source of witness information, located here.. For most users, this page is woefully incomplete. It lacks important details about witness settings and operational status, and it doesn’t declare which witnesses are inactive. Users who are already perplexed by the voting process are more likely to pick a name from the list rather than write one into the field below. In fact, they may not even realize other choices exist.

For this reason, once a witness hits the Top 50 and shows up as a choice on steemit.com, their votes tend to increase significantly because of simple visibility. And guess what else? You got it. There’s a money component. The higher a witness ranks on the list, the more blocks they receive, and each block pays. Lower level witnesses are typically in the hole paying for servers and other hardware. Profit doesn’t come for most until they approach level 75. Being a Top 50 witness is a very, very coveted position, and not always for the right reasons.

Blood Sport

Still, this doesn’t explain how witnessing is “brutally political,” or how it directly affects you. So, let me share a bit more info about how things work. If Top 50 is important for visibility on the steemit.com voting page, a Top 20 position is paramount. Once a witness reaches that ranking, they can vote on hardfork changes - changes that impact the “rules” we all operate by on the steem blockchain. Sites like steemit.com, busy.org, dlive, dtube, dsound, zappl, busy.org, and dmania all share the same “database,” which is the steem blockchain itself. They are all constrained by the rules our Top 20 witnesses agree to implement. See where this is going? The Top 20 witnesses are the wheelhouse of operation, the place where decisions get made. And the rivalry for those positions is a blood sport.

Now, your role in this whole drama - if you care about the future of the platform - is to cast your thirty votes for witnesses you trust to work in the best interest of us all, and not just for what will benefit their personal agendas or wallets. So, if you’re not voting for witnesses who share your values, but things are happening on Steemit that you don’t like…well, in that case, the only thing I can tell you is that if you don’t provide your input via a vote, you don’t get to complain about the condition of the blockchain. Voting for witnesses is not a requirement of a decentralized platform. But it’s certainly a responsibility for all concerned users.

What's My Angle?

I am part of a witness team. You can vote for me, but not under my name, and it’s a write-in. But first, let me tell you what I stand for, and what I fight for as a witness who will someday, hopefully, make the Top 20 with my partner, @SirCork.

I’m not a developer. I don’t code. However, I do subscribe to the notion that witnesses need some degree of proficiency in these areas, or a partner with those skills. SirCork and I teamed up because we hold similar values when it comes to Steem business and real-world philanthropy. We have similar reputations for being unbridled when speaking the truth. But we’re at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to technical ability.

I won’t quote Cork's resume here, but suffice it to say he knows his way around a witness server. He has won Presidential awards for serving the U.S. government as a consultant. He lists NASA in his work history. He’s created apps for Steem users as well as multiple 24/7 streaming media networks that are Steem-centric, and founded a worldwise humanitarian aid organization that is exclusive to the Steem blockchain.

On the other hand, with the @writersblock, I’ve built a solid and tightly organized community of content creators who have just as much interest in seeing the platform succeed as investors and developers. I’m a published author and have launched a real-world publishing house that is backed by crypto. I represent the interest of the content creators on Steemit, and believe I am well and professionally qualified to speak for them at any witness level they see fit to elevate me.

Empowering us to work in the best interest of the platform requires voting. If witness team Sircork is ever going to be ranked high enough to make a difference on your behalf, you have to take that first step. If you’re already voting for us, thank you. If not, I respect your reasons - unless that reason is that you just haven’t done it yet. In that case, we need to talk.

Remember the link from earlier to steemian.info? This one. Go have a look at that page. You can vote or unvote witnesses there through SteemConnect, as well as see many witness details and platform information not provided by Steemit.com . If so much info does nothing but confuse you, by all means, go to https://steemit.com/~witnesses . There you’ll see a list of fifty names. If you see names you recognize, people you trust, give them a vote while you’re at it. But many witnesses deserve a vote whose names don’t show up on that list. Team Sircork is one of them. Scroll to the bottom of the list, until you see the write-in field. Type the name “Sircork” there, so that it looks like this:

WARNING!!!!! Do not click a witness name after it appears as a link on that page. If you do, you will automatically unvote us with no warning from the site. This is a known problem, but the best we can do is tell you about it so you won’t click in error.

There is also the option to have someone proxy votes on your behalf, until you feel more confident making choices on your own. That field is below the write-in. It allows you to choose one person to vote in your stead. That means whoever they vote for, you vote for. Instantly. Automatically. Is it the way to go? I don’t recommend it. I’d rather see people doing their own research into witnesses who best represent the interests of the platform. But it’s better than nothing. Just be sure to choose a proxy you feel would vote for the same concerns and interests that you find important for the platform’s future.

One final method of voting for us if you’re familiar with SteemConnect:

https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=sircork&approve=1

The act of voting for witnesses is reasonably simple. Knowing who to vote for is a bit more complex. But trust your gut. Vote your conscience.

Most importantly at all, please just vote.

HERE is another post about witness voting by @katrina-ariel. She's running a contest to provide incentive for users to vote. Definitely worth checking out!