After reading @riverhead's post about how he had to give up Steemit.chat due to major stakeholders un-voting him as witness which caused a shift in his monetary area which meant he cannot afford to maintain steemit.chat.
It made me realize that WHAT DO OUR TOP 20 WITNESSES DO ANYWAY?
I know that they are responsible for keeping the steem blockchain running!
But what else do they do?
A little search came up with a wonderful article called A Full Steemit User's Guide to Steem Witnesses by @pfunk
And this is the basic things that a Witness HAS to do :
Witnesses are generally voted for because they are trusted members of the community, positively contribute to Steem and Steemit in many ways, are qualified and experienced in administration of servers, and are experienced in cryptocurrency networks and software. Witnesses are expected to keep a block-producing Steem node running 24/7/365.25. They are also expected to provide an ongoing price feed of the value of STEEM tokens in U.S. dollars, set the mininum Steem Power deposit to create an account, set the APR% for the Steem Dollar interest rate, and in the future might set additional network variables. Witnesses are also strongly encouraged to run a seed-node to provide the blockchain to syncing clients.
But wait, there is more!
As a witness, you want to contribute to the steem ecosystem and what better ways to do this than to create good things that made this place better.
Things like a chat, or a spam bot or a handy online calculators to figure out who you number one fan is on here!
So I went on a little investigation because I want to know WHAT our top 20 witnesses are doing!
From which the post was birthed :
IN PLAIN ENGLISH.
So that EVERYONE can understand.
You will not find any of that technological stuff here.
Just real talk.
That you can grasp.
And if you don't understand it, ASK!
Ask ask ask in the comments and you'll get an answer.
I PROMISE!
So without further ado,
I present to you,
What our top 20 witnesses do!
(OOOHHH the rhyming made me very happy)
Witness #20 : @furion
Now I had to do a little digging to find out ALL what this guy has done because he has DONE a lot for our community.
His main focus is a decentralized video-uploading platform called View.ly.
Pretty damn cool
He has created https://steemdata.com/stats which is basically a programme that allows parties outside of the Steem blockchain interact with it way easier.
This includes the SteemData API.
This is pretty damn essential to the success of our blockchain and definitely a reason why you should vote for @furion
He also maintains Steem Python Library and Conductor which are tools to help witnesses!
Good stuff!
He also runs the https://mentions.steemdata.com which is also a neat little tool to find your mentions.
And to top it off, he is a co-founder of @steemsports which I think is a pretty essential blog for all you sport-lovers out there!
Witness #19 : @pfunk
@pfunk's thing on here is to fight abuse!
Which personally I think is great and VERY much needed!
He was an administrator on Steemit.chat welcoming people to the Steem community and being an overall good guy. Plus rewarding the moderators on there!
Even though Steemit.chat is down at the time of this writing, I know that this is a very valuable job to our Steem ecosystem and I hope @pfunk picks up where he left off when it is up and running again.
This music lover supports @luzcypher's Open Mic contests by donating 320 STEEM each week.
Which is highly necessary to keep the creative music community thriving on here.
Plus he has delegated 5000SP to the @openmic account which upvotes Open Mic entry posts!
Pretty crucial to the open mic community
All in all, @pfunk is on here to look out for the (creative) community and is constantly finding new avenues to contribute to the blockchain in a positive way!
Witness #18 : @curie
Curie is one of the most well known witnesses especially due to their huge curation guild on here.
You've probably heard about Curie and have wanted to get Curie'd when you just got onto the platform.
They reward exceptional content creators who have had limited success.
They play an extremely important role in the Steemit community and really help out the newbies
@Curie uses their witness rewards to support their curation guild which is very noble.
And extremely beneficial to the Steem community
Witness #17 : @thecryptodrive
This guy is proud to be the very first Africa-based Steem Witness!
Yay for the international community on here!
He is CEO of @buildteam which is a blockchain innovator group who build good stuff for our wonderful community!
Which powers @minnowbooster which is a HUGE player in helping minnows on their Steemie journey
He is involved in @steemsports and is advisor and site admin of steemvoter.com
Which is probably the most used auto-vot bot, therefore pretty important for the Steem community!
Plus he started the @steemdrive iniative which focuses on getting the Steem blockchain seen by 'normal' people in the real world on HUGE billboard outdoor media, which is crowdfunded by the Steem community!
Amazing way to bring new peeps onto the platform! BRAVO!
Witness #16 : @xeldal
@Xeldal's focus lies in the witness area.
He is witness for Bitshares and the Muse blockchain.
Nice
Apparently this guy can do a ton of cool stuff although I haven't been able to find out much.
In his 'spare time', he creates arbitrage bots that can aid in the turning of a profit on the exchanges.
Didn't even know this existed so that's pretty cool
Witness #15 : @anyx
As a keen user of using @steemcleaners when I want to report abuse on here, it was a pleasant surprise to find out that @anyx is the founder and leader of this wonderful enterprise on the Steem blockchain!
Seriously, a gazillion thank you's for the MEGA important work that you do!
Plus @anyx is also the mastermind behind the incredibly helpful tool @cheetah that scours our platform in search of plagiarised content!
A complete MUST to keep this place as spam-free as possible
Witness #14 : @netuoso
@netuoso contributes to the community through Steemcreate.
A service which acts as a recovery agent of your account if your account is stolen.
Pretty neat feature and an extra layer of protection is never a bad thing!
He is also a software developer for the Minnow Support Project where he regularly contributes free software to the community.
Sharing is caring remember?
Witness #13 : @smooth.witness
This witness likes to keep a low profile by not revealing his identity.
He mentions that he has been in the cryptosphere since 2011 and is core team member of Monero and lead developer of AEON.
Both coins that are focused on privacy and being anonymous
His main focus as a witness is to ensure that the network is secure, reliable and scalable.
Crucial stuff really
Witness #12 : @aggroed
This witness is responsible for the creation of the amazing Minnow Support Project!
An incredible feature to our wonderful blockchain that really adds value
If you head on ove to the Discord server, there is a plethora of chats to dive deep into and tons of people who want to help you!
You should go check it out!!!
Plus, (And I didn't not know this), @aggroed hosts a weekly radioshow called “Minnow Mayor Town Hall”
where there people can communicate with him on all sorts of different topics.
Love how involved he is with the community!
Witness #11 : @pharesim
@pharesim calls himself a free knowledge advocate!
Which I totally support too!
He is responsible for one of the most amazing projects on the blockchain, namely Steeminvite.com
A mega quick cheap service where you can instantly create Steem accounts for your friends and family!
Such a breathe of fresh air because now people don't have to wait to create an account!
Plus he created @steemdice1 a simple dice rolling game in which you bet money against the blockchain!
It's a nice little way to get some extra cash, or lose a bit! Haha
He is a key developer for Pevo, “a decentralized long-term digital archive for scholarly publishing.“
Let ALL knowledge be free!!!!
Witness #10 : @lukestokes.mhth
This is the witness account of @lukestokes who is a Steemian doing A LOT for the community.
He has been posting the Exchange Transfer Report which looks at the price of SBD and Steem and the flow of 'cash' on our blockchain.
Definitely interesting to take a look at!
As a witness, he focuses on economic discussions and evaluating hardfork code change proposals.
This man knows what he is talking about!
Witness #9 : @clayop
@clayop is a huge ambassador for the Korean community!
Which I am happy about because we need more KR representatives!
He seems to post a lot of Steem-related posts and how we could improve the blockchain!
Unfortunately, his posts are mostly in Korean but it's good because he is keeping the KR community in the loop about advancements in Steem!
Thank you for being a bridge for Korea!
Witness #8 : @someguy123
This guy is deeply embedded in the crypto-dev world as he has worked on numerous BIG projects already.
He has also a couple of essential tools that witnesses can use or if you want to become a witness!
Definitely check him out if you are up for that!
But most relatable to us, the fishies of the Steemit sea, is his project AnonSteem, where users can create anonymous steem accounts!
Cos everyone has a right to privacy!
Witness #7 : @ausbitbank
@ausbitbank is what you could call a master curator!
You will find his upvote cast ALL over the Steem blockchain which is feat in itself! He gives an extra boost to those newbies coming onto Steem!
As a co-founder of Minnow Support Project and Team Australia, this guy is making our blockchain a better, more inclusive and friendly place!
Thanks for all that you do!
Witness #6 : @blocktrades
Another well known witness, because it runs one of the easiest ways to get $Steem and $SBD into and off the Steem blockchain.
You've got to try it! It is so easy!
@blocktrades likes to hand out upvotes which put a big smile on people's faces because they are HIGH!
You can also buy a delegation or Steem account through them.
Which is going to help get even more newbies to the platform and support them!
The account is not powering down so this shows they are invested in Steem and believe in the blockchain!
Duh! We are the best ;)
Witness #5 : @good-karma
@good-karma is the creator of the Esteem app that many of us use as our home-space for Steemit on our phones.
It's a great app!
He has also developed SteemPoll, SteemMonitor and the Steemfest apps!
Cannot wait to use it at Steemfest3!
Witness #4 : @timcliff
@timcliff is responsible as a steem dev for many positive changes to the Steem blockchain.
Stuff that makes our lives a lot easier!
He is also involved in keeping the Steemit FAQ, the cover image FAQ and the Steemit welcome page all up-to-date!
Very essential things so newbies understand this place even more!
He writes a 'Reports From The Witnesses' series which showcases all the things happening in the Witness world of Steemit.
It's damn cool to get such important updates from the people who are keeping this whole thing running!
A very active positive Steemian!
Witness #3 : @gtg
With a great name like Gandalf The Grey, this witness can be seen as our protector!
Just like the real Gandalf!
He is focused on keep our accounts as safe as possible through telling users they've leaked their private keys to and educating on network and witness security!
Very important for our whole steem ecosystem!
He likes to hand out delegations to minnows.
So they can have even more of an impact on our beloved blockchain and get a taste of what it's like to have a high SP!
Witness #2 : @roelandp
We all know this Steem-celebrity who is the organizer of the BIGGEST Steem get-together @steemfest!
Which you obviously need to go to this year!
He created Steemtools.com which is an overview of different apps that you can use to improve your Steem experience!
It's damn good.Check it out!
He has created quite a few apps on the blockchain ranging from the funny to the essential!
He has cool ideas
Witness #1 : @jesta
@jesta is responsible for creating ChainBb, which lets you see Steem more as a forum!
Check it out if you like a forum-style of being social online
He is also the creator of Vessel, a desktop wallet for Steem.
Steemdb is probably one of the most helpful tools for the Steem blockchain and guess who is behind it? @jesta of course!
If you are not using this yet to find stuff out about your account, check it out now!
So there you have it!
The projects, enterprises, bots and tools that our top 20 wonderful witnesses are working on!
This has definitely opened my eyes to new witnesses that I will cast my vote upon!
I hope this post helps you make decisions on which witnesses to vote on!
USE YOUR WITNESS VOTES!
YOU HAVE 30 TO USE!
GO HERE TO VOTE NOW : https://steemit.com/~witnesses
If I have gotten something wrong, or something needs to be added to this list, please let me know, so I change it!!
I did extensive research to get all the information but obviously this could not be relevant anymore or simply outdated! Or even completely wrong!
Steem Octopus is by @fabiyamada and will be getting a bit of SBD from this post!
Sources :
1 : Meet Steem's Top 20 witnesses by @jerrybanfield
2 : pfunk New Year Witness Update by @pfunk
3 : @Curie = Meet The Witnesses #31 by @lexiconical
4 : Why you should give Curie a Witness Vote by @mikepm74
5 : Introducing: The Incredible, The Mythical, @TheCryptoDrive by @mooncryption
6 : @Netuoso - Meet The Witnesses #36 by @lexiconical
7 : smooth witness by @smooth.witness
8 : @Aggroed - Meet The Witnesses #12, Remastered by @lexiconical
9 : pharesim.me by @pharesim
10 : Vote Luke Stokes for Witness as lukestokes.mhth! by @lukestokes
11 : Meet Steem's Top 10 Witnesses! by @jerrybanfield
BIG love,
Ashley
My LoveProject is @humansofsteemit! Featuring the humans behind the Steemit usernames!
Resteemed:
I'd really like to see you on the Trending, how about it folks! ???
Hehehe.
Don't think that's happened before ;)
Thank you for being here @surfyogi
KICK ASS news reporting!
Thank you!
Took a good four hours :)
But so worth it!
Learnt so much in the process too!
Nice overview of the top 20 - not too wordy, but enough words to be informative
Well that's exactly what I was going for :)
And that everyone could understand it!
Thank you so much for this! Being new here, I literally had no idea about what witnesses do before I read this. Every time I think that I have learned enough about Steemit for the day I realize I have 1000 more things to learn. Luckily since I plan on being here for the long-haul it looks like I will have enough time to learn everything that there is to know. My sister recently got a huge upvote from @blocktrades and I have to say it made her week, she was so excited! Being new here and seeing some of our posts only getting one other vote (plus my sad .01 vote 😢) can be a bit discouraging, but when something like that happens it’s like a fairy has visited 😂
Honestly, get used to that feeling haha
I've been on here 5 months and still learning new things EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Pretty insane.
But also very good.
This place keeps you on your toes!
:)
Enjoy your Steem journey
I'd like to advocate for us witnesses below 20 down to about 80 or even 100, there are some AMAZING contributions going on by us, and the top 20 are mixed between those that do tons and those that used to do tons, but have gotten complacent and non-existent lately.
Try this. Message some of them, see who responds? Now try that with a few between 20 and 100...
It's easy to get complacent in the top 20 and we have some who have...
That's @riverheads' point and mine now too. Do your own research, but just because they did something a year ago, doesn't mean they are doing it or doing it well now. Stay dialed in, your witness votes are liquid, you can give them, and you can take them away. And sometimes, you should.
I will.
I definitely will.
I just wanted to KNOW what our witnesses are doing.
And it has come to my attention, that there are people doing way more for the community who are not in the top 20!
I am putting my detective hat on and am going on a search!
As in, going hunting for witnesses that are bringing massive value to the blockchain and deserve WAY more votes!
Let's stay in touch!!
By all means. Come visit on Steemitizens of Steem on Sunday on the SteemStar Network.
Holy Moly, It looks like you have put an incredible amount of time into this post. I'm super happy I ended up reading this article, and It may sound weird but I actually feel closer to the steemit community now?
Anyways, It's awesome knowing some background on the top witnesses on Steemit. I was actually looking through the list today.
Seriously Great post!
Haha, yeah I did.
About 4/5 hours hehe. Most work I've EVER done for a post!
Yea I guess it's also because you understand it more now right?
Like what the witnesses are REALLY doing!
Thank you!
very informative post, although I feel these witnesses could make their presence a little more known on the platform. Some of them I have never heard of even though I look through a lot of post everyday. But thanks for sharing anyway, really good info.
Yes, I completely agree!
And that's why I am working on a new project that will showcase them more :)
that sounds like a good idea @ashleykalila, looking forward to it.
This was PERFECT! I've been wanting something concise like this. I'm resteeming, girl!
Great to hear!!! :)
Well done Ms Ashley. This is a good days worth of digging to find all of this and ferret out the specifics on each user as you did. I just wish more steemians recognized how important it is to vote for witnesses. and not always just inside the top 20.
I have made my 30 votes and 1 includes myself but I have at least spent all 30 votes
I have this bookmarked now as a reference post.
Yea it was quite a bit of work indeed.
I am now working on a series which looks at the witnesses from 20-200 :)
Want to showcase the good eggs and what they are doing for our community which'll hopefully bump them up a bit! :)
from reading your report on the witnesses it would seem that they are all doing their job just fine.
so what was @riverhead's problem?
Now I do not know the exact details but this is what I got from the steemit.chat welcome page when it was down.
He moved down in the witness list which meant he would get a lot less money for being a witness, therefore he couldn't keep steemit.chat going because it's a pretty expensive thing to maintain.
His issue lies in that there is no clear space where it is all clearly outlined what the witnesses are doing on the blockchain.
I guess it's everyone's own personal opinion to decide if a witness is doing their job or not and to vote based on that.
I am just grateful that this predicament came up because I dived deep into the whole witness thing and am doing continuous research on them.
And based on that, people can make their own decisions whether or not to give them their vote. :)
I agree and get the impression they are all great witnesses by this list. Yet, there is mention that some of these witness' have become complacent.
Wondering if you can you let us know which these are? I don't know how to message them individually tbh. But, also want to vote for the keeners! That care and show up for one another, us, and for the block chain and who are running a tight ship with unmissed blocks and all the important stuff..... i am trying to figure out!!
I am working on this!
It's going to be a constant project to figure out how much our witnesses are bringing to the table!
Hopefully within the next few weeks, the first post will be up!
Good on you gurl! That's some needed content 💜🖤💙💚
I'm the wrong one to ask that question.
I don't know.
What an incredible post about witnesses girl !!!
A lot of stuff I didn't know, most of the people on this list I know - some even personally from steemfest! - so I never heard of (and it seems I should have!) Congrats - finally a guide to lead us all !!!! [my God, that sounds like a line from the Lord of the Rings :P ] Resteemed!
Thank you dear!!!
Hahaha
I AM YOUR LEADER ;)
It's good to know what our witnesses are up to!
Leading guide ;)
Well yeah it is, people should look into that more, for sure!
This is such a cool post! I have always wished I had a better way to learn about the top witnesses, and now we do! Imma link this to people when they ask about being a witness from now on.
I postulate that while she did a great job with this post and the post's intentions are awesome, this actually perpetuates a problem we have, wherein most new users who DO eventually vote, vote for these brand names blindly without investigation and the 21-100 witnesses who in MANY cases are doing kilotons MORE than some of the top 20, some of whom dont even suit up and show up anymore, are not getting the attention they should receive and that it is bothersome to watch.
Did you know there are well over 200 active witnesses? Did you know some of them have aided thousands of humans, and didn't just make some thing last year and disappear?
You should know... it's important to our future.
Sircork, I get where you are coming from.
And personally, I do not believe that some of these witnesses should be in the Top 20.
But instead, let's focus on showcasing the other witnesses in the 20-200 category and what they are doing.
I am already on it and looking at what people are doing.
This will be an ongoing project.
Maybe I should have made my intentions clear at the beginning of this post.
I just wanted to show what the top 20 witnesses do.
Not necessarily saying that people should vote for these people.
:)
Know that you are being heard and I agree with you.
I am on it :)
You're awesome. I'll watch for these updates.
Thanks Matt!
You won't believe how long it took me to find everything out! :P
A good 4/5 hours haha!
:)
Glad it has helped!
Thank you! That is a great service you delivered us. I already had some of the mentioned witnesses on my vote but not all of them.
There is also a TV-format from @davidpakman who recently started to interview witnesses you might want to watch or those who read this post. I would say it is also a valuable source in making up one's mind for whom to vote as a witness.
I resteemd your article.
Ah cool, I'll look into @davidpakman!
Happy it has helped you with your witness votes!
Took a whole lot of time (4 hours) but SO worth it!
Thanks for the helpful post ! Really appreciate it and makes me feel like i have a more informed vote :-)
Absolutely amazing sleuthing, researching and compiling skills I honestly did not know what the other top 20 witnesses aside from the famous ones and those tools that I use.
This will definitely help out some of our members in @steemitfamilyph utilize the remaining witness votes they have.
I still have 14 votes I think to use and will add some more.
Thanks Ashley!
Hehehehehe
Cannot tell you what an effort was made on my part to create this!
Phew.
Glad it's done.
Glad it'll help people!
:)
This is awesome! Thank you for making this list and for sharing this. It's great to learn to know some more about our witnesses!
excellent post @ashleykalila, and important subject, thank you!
This is the first blog I have ever read of yours and it is perfect timing to this hot topic, thank you so much for this!
Thanks!
Yea, it's pretty necessary!
What a good post this is! Thank you as it informs us and makes us grateful. Happy Steeming!
you might check out @dragosroua
he's the creator and maintainer of steem.supply
which I find to be ENORMOUSLY useful...I use it constantly.
I've also given him my proxy...you might talk witness proxies a bit.
Hello @everittdmickey,
I will look into it.
I need to investigate witness proxies a bit more to write about it but thanks for the mention!
What an epic post! Thanks for this overview that will even help people who are already longer on Steemit to get to know the witnesses better. Resteemed!
Awesome! Now I see that they're doing something for the community. Keep this up my friend :)
I think his is one of the best posts on Steemit I have ever read. This post does a great service by letting the whole community know and understand what the Steem witnesses are doing and how important it is to support the right witnesses in order to ensure that the Steem platform develops and thrives for the benefit of us all.
Why thank you!
What a lovely comment to make.
And I completely agree. We need to know what our witnesses are up to!
Thats an absolutely amazing post and today i got to know about how the whole witness thin
g works. thanks
great post and good reading resteemed and hoping this will trend :)
i think more people will get involved in steemchat with the advancement and ease in UI of the system @ashleykalila
That's really a nice run up of the 20 best of the best witnesses in the New era of steemit..
thanks :)
Oh, I missed that post before.
Thank you for bringing some attention to witnesses and their role on the Steem platform.
Thanks for stopping by anyway!
After the huge amount of comments and conversations that popped up because of this post, it made me realize that the community wants to know more about the witnesses so I am going to do an ongoing series on the witnesses!
Of course written in a way that everyone can understand ☺️
That will be challenging. Feel free to let me know about your progress by contacting me on steem.chat, as Gandalf
Will do! ☺️
very nice post for steemit.
Thank you..upvote resteemit done sir....best of luck...
I am not a sir
Good and informative article. LOL. Didn't know @gtg is Gandalf The Grey I thought his name was "got to go"
Yaaas girl thank you for breaking it down! What an incredible compilation. I feel so much more informed on the witness front. Thank you for this!
You've been resteemed as a part of the #LadiesofSteemit initiative!
Keep up the great work. 🎈
Forgot 0.010 more.
Please return 0.010
Nice
do not forget visit our steemit and upvote, thanks.
@ryanrizky
Oh this is great. Now I know more about the other witnesses. I only voted a few so maybe I will add a few more.
I am from Indonesia. I Love you @ashleykalila. Follow me @yasir123