Shutting Down the FollowBTCNews Witness -or- Crim, What Do You Even DO Around Here?

What an unbelievable last year it's been! In some ways, I have no idea where the past months have gone; in others, I've barely been able to keep up as I've crammed them full of stuff and my responsibilities have grown. I wouldn't trade them for anything.

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Over this past year especially, I've had to make a lot of hard decisions, do the best I can to balance my time (yes, you've heard this tune before) and prioritize big picture items over the smaller Crim-centric ones. This is a much needed update, now that I have time to sit down and breathe to write it out for you after months on the road. Let's preface this by saying: I'm proud of me but also wtf just happened?! Skip to the highlighted hexagonal points if you don't actually care about the details but need to know the gist!



The FollowBTCNews witness has been shut down permanently. Your support has meant everything- now it is time to please reallocate your vote to another deserving candidate!

I'm not leaving and nothing else is changing. Don't panic. Unless you want me gone, in which case, yikes, sorry about it, but you're quite stuck with me 🖤


Some of you have noticed that my witness has been disabled for the past little while, and some of you have even checked in on me to make sure I'm okay. I'll be posting shortly from that account so that people who are unsure are able to revoke their vote and make a new choice, but firstly for those of you who are wondering why, I certainly owe you an explanation after a great run as one of your longer term consensus block producers.

The short-ish answer is that our witness account was always meant to run as a team. We were, as far as I know, one of the first ever- two people who agreed to match up their skills to create a better functioning witness and that allowed us to cover more ground. We never worried about block rewards or money; Jeff and I simply agreed that we would split what we had after server bills and infrastructure costs, and that was that. Over the past few years, Jeff has experienced some horrible life situations, including medical problems that have very much required his full attention and most of his life savings. This has meant that overall, I've been running the witness alone. That's fine! But we were to a point where all of the witness earnings above and beyond costs were going into helping support him through his hardships. After things smoothed out for him, we had begun discussing what the future of the witness looked like and how we would handle it going forwards, as neither of us felt that that was what we wanted the block productions rewards used towards and that we knew it was getting a bit inequitable.

Let me tell you; it is very hard to be torn between loving your friends and taking care of them, and loving your entire blockchain and taking care of it. Hive has become my full time career, on top of my full time career; albeit one that I've worked towards largely unpaid for the past few years. It is difficult to describe the practical and emotional aspects of that, as I've had a lot of "well, you're top 20 and you're rich!" or "you have to work for it or else you don't deserve the spot anyways!" flung my way, and to a degree, I've always understood where the sentiment came from. I've also earned every vest that has come from block production, and then some.

If you'd like to hear a very tired me discuss this period while it was still very raw at length, there is a video of a show I had with some of our community that was never meant to see the light of day. The private link is here, and I either may or may not regret sharing it; I am hesitant to present this much of me, but it's far too late to put the genie back in the bottle now. Don't watch it if you just want to read a few sentences instead. After a long holding pattern while I threw myself into other work around the chain rather than make a decision either way, the universe stepped in to get things moving. It turns out that Jeff at some point in the past had compromised the top authority on his account. I woke up to a key change, a vesting route change, new powerdown, and a horrible gut punch.

There's lots to be said here, but the easiest is that it was likely compromised years ago, and only now was capitalized on as part of a wave of a few hundred accounts. When you're on a team, it doesn't matter whose 'fault' it might be- only that it's always your responsibility to fix it. I went around to our very largest voters and asked them to move us out of the top 20 by unvoting us; when my number one job is to secure the network, I feel it is unacceptable to be doing that with an account that has been compromised, even though that doesn't impact the blockchain specifically because of the safety of Hive's design and because your wallet keys don't automatically grant access to your hardware and node infrastructure.

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I've used this opportunity over the last month since it happened to talk a lot about all of the security features that Hive has that worked flawlessly because I believe if bad stuff has to happen, then the least you can do is use it for good- what better way to underline that we have a robust block production schedule, consensus requirements and a whole network of backups, the ability to recover keys, tiered keys and staking which give protection to funds and adequate time to respond to a threat. For most of you, and for the blockchain, this whole thing didn't matter at all! Not even a little; not even a blip. And so, we plummeted out of consensus and I used this crappy circumstance to become even more of an advocate for Hive's structure, and as a chance to sunset the witness and the team which have come to a natural end. I just needed to come to terms that I simply can't be perfect and in control all the time. After more than a month on the road and now another hardfork under our belts, I am okay with saying, "I am tired and need to rest for a moment."



The FollowBTCNews witness owner key was compromised alongside hundreds of accounts, likely years ago before we had great open source options for key management and transaction signing for dApps. It's recovered and fine now.


The lovely part of an immutable, transparent ledger is that any of you can check on this whole string of events for yourself. And, as many of you are wont to do, you have been asking about the new powerdown in place for this now disabled witness. The HP represents the better part of five years of hard work, of dedication, and of being a part of the creation of Hive. I am diverting a larger portion of the funds to my account to grow it, as I've always been doing with my portion of things. Since I haven't always gotten an allocation month to month, the split is a bit lopsided, in my favour. We're both comfortable with this, as it is deserved, and it allows Jeff to finally say that he's done witnessing in name to go along with in deed and focus on his health and his life. It frees me up a bit to not have that aspect of things weighing on my mind.

So that's the worst of the unpleasant stuff out of the way! To address one more question that has been coming alongside all the others... but what do you even do around here? You came into and fell out of the top 20 and the blockchain never even noticed. Now what? I do not usually like to list things out, as it makes me feel like I am protesting too much to prove my relevancy and effort or just bragging, both of which feel very uncomfortable. However, here we are with my supporters saying "tell everyone proudly!", my detractors saying "prove you mean it", and most importantly, a huge part of our ever-growing community who I have not been able to meet or help yet who have no idea I exist.



I do a lot of "invisible work" for Hive, which is a big part of how I help make sure this network grows stronger and more robust day to day. With or without block production, I believe it is meaningful, so here's the shortest incomplete summary I can make.


  • consensus block producer (okay, it's a joke 😅)
  • community and dApp liaison. This is a made up term, but what it means for me is every time one of our groups or projects has a problem, needs help with code, needs to be help kept informed, needs advice, funds, account recovery, layman's explanations, info changed on repositories or Hive websites, an introduction, conflict mediation or more information on how Hive fits with what they're trying to accomplish, I'm there. I spend usually 2-3 hours of the day before my job most days helping coordinate developers, community builders, witnesses, end users, newbs, while moderating discords and telegram gathering places; you name it. My long term goal is to help people find smooth paths through the crazy and difficult communication of a decentralized ecosystem. We have a social blockchain, but sometimes having a project manager and human resources person is what really helps get things moving. @guiltyparties does this too, and he's been an amazing friend and colleague over the years while we've tackled this head on. As we come through the bulk of core chain upgrades, it will be more important than ever to understand what devs and projects need from Hive and help them either create it or communicate it, while onboarding more people ready to join in. When it's hardfork time, I go to directly the people who have projects and sites, developers, etc. and check to see if they're ready, need help, or if I can get them tested or the info and push to start testing. It is weeks of personal check ins and record keeping; I am literally Hive's naggy mom. I do the same thing with Hive's business relationships and exchanges.
  • Speaking of exchanges, I help out all over the place there as well. It's usually around hardfork and listing times when there's a flurry of activity. Getting announcements made, info to tech teams (though our core dev liaisons do the heavy setup lifting! 🧙), informing and prepping through code upgrades, filling out forms, preparing pitches and legal documents, negotiating and helping plan cross promotions, and a bunch of other very tedious and very unfortunately non-anonymous work. I've been around since the legacy fork split, and have been doing this since before Hive ever existed and during it's creation. This often includes meetings in the middle of the night with overseas teams, graphics, video work, and so many presentations. AMAs, in text, voice, or in video usually also fall to me. It is a lot of heavy negotiation and thinking on my feet while trying to bridge the gap between strict corporate structure and a grassroots codebase.
  • Speaking of speaking! 😂 I do a lot of help with communicating what Hive is and can and will be. I travel for conferences, do talks that range from beginner's first crypto all the way up to technical and philosophical discussions on Web3, Hive's origin, distribution and importance in the scheme of truly decentralized governance and technological benefits. While it started out as hosting a weekly live personal radio show and stream simply just explaining complex topics to make Hive easier to grasp, it's turned into being one of the faces for Hive and all of its dApps amd users, guest spots on podcasts, live spaces on crypto twitter groups, outreach, debates and panels at crypto gatherings, online conference presentations, exchange knowledge sessions and interviews and yes, even public speaking engagements out and around the world in person. I was blown away by the interest and enthusiasm from a whole new group of users after a brief intro talk last week at Splinterfest in Las Vegas! While many people attending were veteran Hive users, many more had no idea it automagically powers their favourite game and I was able to connect with a bunch of game devs, dApps, project managers and more who I look forward to helping navigate a really bright future here.
  • Communications matter, and so do relationships. Though Hive isn't corporate, being your own form of professional matters. In the "real" meatsack world, my career straddles web development and graphic design; I manage teams, produce content, guide a brand story, harmonize messaging, design on and offline environments and do light code work to make them look and perform the way they need to. I write scripts and design UI; I create documents and marketing materials; I spend entire days resolving conflict so contractors can be supported but also accountable. Being a creative and a dev and having this 15 year career in my corner helps me be of better use to our ecosystem and the people here, because everything I do offline for a big company, I also do here for Hive. I spend a lot of time working on comms and socials, proofreading, copy writing, helping make or give feedback on graphics, websites, merchandise, cost management, channeling people into tasks and things that they'll be interested in and can help out with, and all manner of weird little incidentals that crop up as you try to arrange events, services, and upgrades inside a constantly evolving social ecosystem. In the coming year, via @valueplan as well as in concert with our dApps and core devs, there will be more initiatives and legacy work that I'll be working to bring to life, manage, mentor, and help strengthen.



This list is already not-so-short and is woefully incomplete, but hopefully it helps you understand why I'm very proud of the past half decade even as I'm telling you the unfortunate final news about our team witness. I do also work with and for a number of projects and communities, many of which I helped create starting back in 2017 and onwards, and I've been heavily involved in leadership in the ecosystem dating right back to the days of helping out Steemit Inc with a lot of these tasks... and then breaking away and doing them for ourselves as part of the team who created and prepared Hive for the split. Like so many of you doing amazing things, I've been here building through the very worst, through disaster and triumph, and I look forward to figuring out where I can take on even more.

I could pad this out like a resume with all of the personal accomplishments and projects that I've worked on or am working on, but I feel like those are less relevant to the question of "what do you do for the Hive ecosystem itself" so as awesome as they all are I'm leaving them out for now. I am not leaving, and nothing at all is changing. The shut down witness and powerdown on the witness account is not because I don't intend to keep at all the tasks that need doing and the goals that we're setting; I am just tired of carrying some parts of the burden by myself and realized that with conferences, travel, and hardfork 26 that the smartest thing I could do was focus on those and let every other block producer continue to move Hive along. Go ahead and ask or suggest whatever you need to if somehow this absolute unit of a novel didn't address something.

If you read all this, you're nuts. But I appreciate it. Even if I often am really busy and am slow to get back to you, or haven't really had time for updates, I have a responsibility to all of you over this whole event. I'll keep on helping you out, keeping you informed, and doing my best. If you were voting for @followbtcnews, I value that trust you put into me, knowingly or not. Please use the awesome features of this blockchain to support another witness as they work to help make Hive even better and more secure. 🖤

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TLDR: This is a blockchain run by humans, for humans. Sometimes humans break and need to get better, or refocus their energies. At the end of the day, they're still humans. Humans we can be grateful for.

I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING

seriously, thank you. What a wonderful sentence and something that I will shamelessly steal for when I talk about why Hive has the feature-set it does and how it creates and protects value that extends beyond tokens... a blockchain made and run by humans, for humans.🖤

I love these types of posts because it makes many realize all the unseen work that goes on to make hive and really the grand vision of it possible and often times it doesn't get rewarded or praised as it should. Let me take this moment to say thank you for all you have done for Hive and continue to do. Look forward to seeing your own witness jump on that list so I can cast my vote as your commitment and time invested has been huge.

Thank you so much 🖤 I know this is also the reason why many people have pushed me to discuss it a little bit. It's interesting because I believe that everyone should be able to value themselves and their work fairly but don't always know how to properly do that here for myself. I'll put a bit more thought into potentially spinning up a new personal node in the future, but there are a few more things that I need to put some thought into on this front before I make a decision about it.

Wow, that was a lot of amazing info! Sorry for the rough patches you've been through, @crimsonclad. And double wow... thank you for all the amazing stuff you do, and your time and devotion. That is dedication! And Hive is a better place, and a more well-known platform than it would otherwise be. You are a warrior for the cause!

Utmost respect!

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Thanks for all your work and dedication!
(I just unvoted your witness.)

The work you have done for the blockchain for all these years is just breathtaking and I can only admire it. A real little bee.

We have already discussed what happened to you with your witness during our trip to Amsterdam. You keep all my trust and I would only rejoice and feel serene about the security of the blockchain if you were to spin your witness node again.

We can be a tough crowd, thanks for being one of the leading lights.

you know, overall, I find that the Hive community is fervent, but in general pretty reasonable! There are definitely a few that simply do not find me their cup of tea, but the world would be a pretty boring place if we all liked exactly the same thing. There is just a lingering air of resentment and distrust that came around the period of the legacy blockchain which I think is finally starting to dissipate 🖤

Wow, I’m mesmerised for what you do O.O
I’m so happy you made a post! I actually wanna reread with @growandbow in order to understand more about what you are talking about exactly 😹😅 I’m just to new -.-
I’m so happy we had a chat in Amsterdam for some minutes about NFT…and life! I finally made my account and I’m super motivated to be learning about it all slowly but surely.
I asked Mazin how to send you a Pm, but it seems that is not possible here right? Hopefully I find the way to interact with you and hopefully we can coincide some time and hear some good tracks together.
Big love and energy! You are incredible 🙏🏽💜🌙

I'm so glad he got you caught up and you're doing your thing and out exploring! I have a few messages from him I need to answer, but I so loved spending time with you two. What lovely humans you are! I am hoping to renew my "newbie questions" voice chats or streams soon so that maybe once a month or so I just sit and work with anyone at any level who wants to come ask anything at all~ that being said, part of the cool part of blockchain is you can learn as little or as much as you want! Services get better every day, and the goal (especially for these social platforms) is to make things work "automagically"!

Hehehe indeed! Of course, we are learning a lot from the community. Sending you lots of love

Thanks for making such a impact on hive Crim!

Was great to see you rocking out on the stage at Splinterfest!

And a few photos you shared from Iceland!

And for being rock solid to the dogs!

Hopefully voting for your witness, for many years to come!

I am thinking a little about when and how I will step back into block production, but it's not top of mind at this point as there's a few things I'd like to spend more time contemplating. Thanks for being such a long term, staunch blockchain supporter! Have a Lulu boop~

Thats a lot of text.

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and i cant read...

Well shit, this is going to take me a while to draw out. Maybe klye can just sketch some dicks over the page in the interim?

ASK AND SHALL RECIEVE! @crimsonclad

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ah, now I get it! Thanks!

You are most welcome.

I appreciate that you made them lurking ominously in the background this time instead of attaching them to my face as per usual.

Not going to lie. I had an internal debate to make a dick hanging out of your dress, but decided against it as I'm a gentleman.. :D <3

think of the absolute length that unit would have to be, though. Kind of a flex.

*hears dicks on the wind *

Who has summoned me?

8==D Klye is the best at doodling these things...

that would be awesome!

On the plus side, I put giant flashing hexagons next to three sentences if words are intimidating!

I thought we were just supposed to look at the pretty moving lines. 😵

I did read (most of it)... Getting to know you a little bit, just a little bit, ill say this... stuff only matters if you make it matter. No one really liked Crim because she was a blockproducer anyway. They just liked Crim.
If you decide to try again down the line. Market your name. You should do fine.

Well, I think I'd prefer to be marketable for my skills than my brand in this arena, but I see that veiled compliment and I'll take it, sir 😊

I will say that the part that is tiring/distressing is less what people think of what I'm doing to be deserving and more the push pull balance of the witness work/funds the last few years. It's very fair to say you're right to a degree, in that I have an over developed sense of business ethics that don't always make working in a space like this being 'self policed' any easier, though. Both proud of and ashamed by that, I think 😂

Your name (brand) includes your skills.

Everyone here has their own brand that needs to be cultivated. Its what makes you stand out.
Point is, if you run a witness again, do it under your name. Make the witness a part of your brand.
I dont think its that people dont appreciate what you do, i think its more to do with there being 50+witnesses and peoples attention and memory is fleeting. They need to be reminded over and over again.

2793 words and not one of those was a new witness announcement? big fail Crim, maybe @clayboyn and @r0nd0n can help you to draft one.

TL;DR: @crimsonclad is amazing.

Looking forward to toss a vote! :-D

Wow that's a tough decision, I don't envy you being in that position.

I hope yr friend is OK going forwards.

If only America had a decent system of health and social care in place the funding dilemma wouldn't even have been an issue.

I remember you from years ago on pal and to hear all the work you've done you deserve everything and it was really influencing to me to read your post you're awesome 👍

Crim, I feel like I've totally lost touch with most of the witness goings on and the VIP's on HIVE, but I never forgot you per se. I always thought you were a bit of a legend and appreciated the help you gave me with the NM logo many years ago (which I dont run anymore, because, life) and being always so excited to see me on the odd times I could make it to your radio shows (coz, Australia) and always had respect for you. Scanning this, I can see you are still legendarying like a boss. Go you. You always have my admiration and respect! :)

You know what the beautiful thing is? The blockchain holds on to all the things you need it to, while you go ahead and life over there in the upside-down. There's something about that that I think is so wonderful for lovely people like you who are working on finding what the right balance of using these tools looks like. You can be as up to date as you want, keep your assets and projects protected and on hold, and know that you own the keys to as much or as little of it all as you need or want at any given time. An island of stability in the midst of all things flowing~ thanks for being a wonderful human being 🖤🙇

I really enjoyed the show of vulnerability in this post, and the video @crimsonclad 💚 Brave and extremely admirable! It sounds as if you are a bit hard on yourself, but came around to the idea that you should refocus in a way that does not feel draining to you- PROPS!

As you talked about the internet of things, it reminded me of this post I wrote five years ago on Steemit, where I talk about my predictions involving AI weirdness and an energy crisis... it was totally satire, but it aged "well"...Strange times indeed!

Thanks for all the hard work you do, and the lesson on security/ how hive has evolved! You are a shining example of positivity through strife 😁

I know a little about how many hard miles you put in behind the scenes and it really is highly appreciated. Thank you!

I'm late to the news, and while followbtcnews being gone will be weird to get used to, I'm excited to see you perhaps gain a bit more time to focus in on your main account and your own goals. You'll always have the support of me and mine!

I would like to believe I'll post more. I don't think that will be the case, but I do think that I will a) start trying for one real photo/travel/pro-am post a month, b) keep up better with shows, and c) complete some of the piles of tasks outstanding and then properly present them with mini proposals.

Will this happen? No clue. But it can't go backwards, anyways, and the stuff that will get done will be good for everyone, so that's enough for now. 🖤

Moving on, not moving out and I wish you all the success in the world with this shift in direction, Crim. I can only speak for myself but I’ll say you’re a legendary monster and one that has entertained, educated, and kept me interested during my early days on this blockchain. You’re much appreciated ❤️. (Rebel Dan)

Thank you for all the work you have done @crimsonclad!
Balancing 2 full time jobs is never easy but you did it, and now, you can enjoy this "resting period".
I hope to see you back in the witness though but we'll see. 😉
Good luck and thank you again! You're amazing!

Thanks for everything you do on the chain Crimmie!!

I was away for awhile but I'm a nerd when it comes to this shit so therefore pay attention to that witness world stuff. Seemed so strange seeing yours off and falling down the chart. First thing that came to mind was, Public Meltdown? Nope. No real drama in sight.

Thanks for clearing things up. I'll reblog, maybe help spread the message.

Working behind the scenes often becomes a thankless job. But that's only because the gratitude exists behind the scenes as well. You don't want to be out here boasting in the same way people don't want to be out here showering you with praise. The people who get it, get it. The people who don't, well, they say some weird shit...

I mean, a meltdown truly would have been a lot more fun, wouldn't it have been? This was likely a missed opportunity on my part so I guess we put it in the failure column, lol. The "flounce" is a beloved Steemit-era term that's not been uttered 'round these parts for too long.

I always appreciate the fun and the help~ 🖤 but yes, the truth is quite dry and responsible. Overwhelmingly, people have been great, but there is still a chasm to bridge of users and witnesses who believe some of us who may have been consensus long term are against them and only in it to line our pockets despite years of work to the contrary. I think where I'm at for now I can continue to help us all compete and collaborate a little better. Hopefully, at least 😂

Detractors are a necessary evil that keep you humble and point out potential places you need to look at doing work, while supporters keep you from breaking under the strain. There is equal frustration with what I've made already alongside others who are damn pissed I've not made a proposal. It's a sticky spot I'm not quite yet ready to tackle!

Yes, as an avid meltdown attendee, I agree; missed opportunity. So what if they're dirty looks. Views are views and this popcorn wont eat itself.

All jokes aside, I hear what you're saying and from what I've witnessed over the years, these days I feel confident pointing out maturity and rationality are on the rise. The scales were tipping in the opposite direction for quite some time for 'reasons' that didn't make sense to a lot of people, during a period where the entire world was falling apart. Everyone was on edge. I'm seeing things shift. Folks are settling down.

You're wise to point out the necessity of all contributing factors only leading to a healthy/productive balance.

I think a proposal would work out well for you. Marky hinted at firing up you own witness. That would probably work out as well. And if not, freak out! It'll be fun.

Guess I'm nuts, I read the whole thing. Situations change, priorities change, and new beginnings are started. Good luck on moving forward don't worry if you have to take a step back to move two steps forward, that is life.

Reading this you made me understand that we can't be available for everybody even though we want to be present, Life is not a bed of roses, It is either sweet or bitter. We are all occupied one way or the other most people wouldn't understand but @crimsonclad I really really understand and it's fine if you are not always available, I myself will check up on you from Time to time and i hope you recover your witness so I can vote, you are a tough being I respect that fact.

Con ayuda del traductor pude leer 🙏, mis bendiciones desde acá para uds, todo siempre sale y saldrá bien 😊

With the help of the translator I could read 🙏, my blessings from here to you, everything always goes and will go well 😊.

Thanks for all you do. LMK if you join another witness team. I'm glad Jeff's pulling through.

I've always appreciated your support and your outlook and opinions when it comes to Hive 🖤I'm in a bit of a weird spot right now. I'm not sure that I would get into a partnership situation again, even though at the time it made nothing but sense. I've got such a reputation and wealth of knowledge about how to do things in the best way for opsec and the chain in general, that makes a lot of sense to go it alone. The flip side is is that I'm already busy all the time with exchanges and other tasks, plus taking on more speaking, that I worry I wouldn't necessarily be able to meet people's expectations now- but I'm still doing at least as much work and not actually making anything at all for it without my "witness pay" that I was ferreting away.

SO. Don't actually know the best direction to go from here and have kind of handcuffed myself a little bit 😂

Number one you and doggo gotta eat so I hope that's covered. Great things with @valueplan. Glad you're involved. Lmk if I can support in any way.

I am officially nuts, but I was enriched by reading this because while I did not who you were and what you did om Hive before this, you are one of the reasons I stay around here -- my type of Hive people! Thank you for all that you are doing for Hive and thus, ALL OF US.

(I didn't know who Jeff was either, but tell him I hope he feels better as soon as possible)

what a lovely comment 🖤 I appreciate you!

this is a very proud project done by a strong worker. I really appreciate what you do, thank you

I don't know what to say, except that I appreciated everything that you did, do and will do for Hive. Let's just hope to meet again in a close future, on I don't know which side of the pond, to share some drinks and food ^^

Cheers! ^^

There's not too much too say at the moment, other than I think it's important to talk about why the witness was disabled and what's happening with that account. Realistically it should have been the day of and just been "yeah, it's done, thanks" but that doesn't feel like the right way to do it, and unfortunately I've learned that an important part of being accountable is explaining things thoroughly to people who both do and don't like you regardless of whether you want to.

So happy after many years of crossings that we finally did manage to sit down for a spell! I have no doubt we'll be able to do more of it in the years to come. I'm sure you'll be just as thrilled when next hardfork I'll be wandering over to knock on your DM door for upgrade and testing check in 😁

Thank you for your hard work on the chain!

Thanks so much for everything you do for Hive 🙌

My prayers are with Jeff, and hopefully he can enjoy life again soon.

As for worrying about those thinking you don't do enough? Let them walk, run, fly, type, and code in your shoes for a week!

This post has been manually curated by the VYB curation project

How great is this #Hive ecosystem, I am extremely impressed, because the more I read and learn, the more extensive and complete it is.
I guess many things are still in development, but, with what I have seen in these short 4 months that I am here, I have seen that its development is unstoppable.
On behalf of those of us who are just starting and looking for a place in the platform, thank you very much for what you do for #Hive.
Greetings from El Zulia, Venezuela, @crimsonclad .

It was a pleasure to talk to you at the last Hivefest as we never did this before in real life.

Sad to hear with your successful witness – but hey, life goes on.
I was voting for you and just changed this.

Anyway, witness is a good topic as I said to myself some time ago,

It is time to give some more support to Hive beneath all the beer

So, I bought a server, asked some friends to help with the setup and now I started my own witness server. We just changed to the latest version and I hope all will run smooth.

Love to discuss more stuff with you. My most interesting topic is “how do we grow the blockchain?” with more apps, users and fun and a way more easy setup for new users.

Please make a new witness :)
Appreciate all the work from you!

I'm not adverse to it, and I do suspect it will happen. There's a bit more work yet to clean up the last bits of the hardfork and then I have some stuff to think about in terms of what getting back into block production will look like as I'd like to make sure it's a net benefit for the chain than not and there are a few little tricky bits on this~

Excellent! Keep up the achievements and challenges! HIVE is a magnificent space to change the world from the individual or collective vision and perspective that each individual possesses within.

My year has been particularly amazing, everything that has been going on with the SWC community and the Street Workout movement here at the Blockchain has been crazy, I am pleasantly amazed at the work I have done in conjunction with the guys and the support of my friend Guiltyparties. I know HIVE is a great challenge, I'm sure next year will be even better!

Greetings and blessings!

Mars!

And I thought you were just a Pétanque star!

I wonder if "Ball Assassin" is a high enough paying career path that I could put the proceeds towards working full time on Hive? 🤔

Thank you for everything you've done for blockchain. It's really great what you have already done here and what you will continue to do.

🖤

so no FFW? 😂

FFW

this is an undetermined topic at the moment. A few things around it I feel will be tricky to navigate, and I think those require a bit more thought than I would have been able to give in the time between all of this starting and traveling and then doing all the stuff that needed to be done before the HF last tuesday.

well if that means we will see iceland on the chain 😝

Take your time, hive is not going anywhere (maybe a bad choice of words :) will not run away? )

Full Force Witness, the most metal witness on the chain :)

posting is just another 'little hill' to be climbed~ 😂

image.png

Did you throw anyone off that one? :3

(LOL, callback to that time you yeeted that chick on the bike off the cliff like a savage)

clears throat

no it's still me

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Ma'am, announce your new witness.

sir, when did you get so uppity

Since time immemorial

Take a vacation (one that isn't HVIE shit) man. JFC.

Power down, do your thing.. literally no fucking point in letting this shit stress ya out. :D

I mean, if I lived in the US and had their medical bills, I'd definitely be a lot more stressed. :(
In some ways, this is a brief little vacation, right?

...
Right?

Right..! (agrees out of fear)

US medical system is atrocious cost wise.. One of the means of snuffing out folks in their society for sure.

Go ahead and ask or suggest whatever you need to if somehow this absolute unit of a novel didn't address something.

Really? Can I? Just ask one question? ...Okay!

If you read all this, you're nuts.

Well... I know you know I'm nuts. ¿Right? ;o) ;p

It's never good to stretch yourself too thin. Im not sure I was aware of the followbtcnews witness or it's issues but if it gives you some time to relax I'm all for you shutting it down.
Great read.

quitter

am not u weiner

I love how my bank sends a text message any time cash comes in our out. Why doesn't HIVE have an option like that when keys change, powerdowns, or large amounts of HIVE move from our account?

Well, the short reason is, because the blockchain itself logs the data as it happens, but the blockchain doesn't send emails/texts/messages on it's own- BUT! If the data exists, then it can be used to do whatever you like~ check out https://peakd.com/hive-169321/@deathwing/announcing-friday-discord-notification-bot

Here's an awesome tool that will do just that, straight to your discord account~ stay safe!

Crim responded faster than me (because she's awesome, that's why) but here's an updated post for FRIDAY, with notification support for every single thing you mentioned.

https://peakd.com/hive-139531/@deathwing/friday-discord-notifications-for-the-hive-ecosystem

Normally I would avoid any link with both the words Friday and Deathwing, but I've joined the Discord server now thank you. It's a bit too complicated for most users in my opinion though. I still think there should be an option in HIVE's settings to email or SMS important things like getting big upvotes, unlocking Splinterlands cards, or key changes though.

It can certainly be done, but again, the tricky part to grasp in this instance is that the Hive blockchain itself wouldn't be the one to do this stuff. Any interface or service could do this in a number of different ways depending on what type of contact info you chose to give them, using the API- which is a fancy way of saying "the piece of code that puts information into the chain for you and goes and reads information from the chain and brings it back to you". But the blockchain itself doesn't have "settings" for each user in the way that you describe, so it's down to a website or something on top to do the careful part of managing your personal contact information against ONLY the info you want a notification for. Discord simply tends to be a medium most people on the chain are familiar with, and it's a big piece of existing software that safely manages a way to directly contact you while protecting that information that's easy to work with.

It's sort of like saying the database that all of your country's financial institutions report into doesn't send you that text notification on a public message board that everyone can look at, just your own bank between you and them as a private text message. You had to give your phone number to them and they created a special service to relay that information to you while protecting your phone number- people around blockchain are very aware of privacy and security issues, and managing personal contact info definitely falls in there.

I am sure you will do good work for the Hive ecosystem. Good luck.@crimsonclad

Thank you for all your work

This is awesome!

I was just curious, why can't the @followbtcnews account laid up for sale to anyone ready to buy the witness and node and move on, instead of shutting it down.

I could certainly do that (or anyone could if they wanted to sell their account), but wouldn't want to for a number of reasons. I don't desire to sell any of the Hive that is vested to the account, but want it moved to my personal wallet to power up instead of leaving it on my old partner's or having it all go to him for his bills. I could technically just use my personal infrastructure now to run a new witness node, or could have used the same infrastructure from that node that was in the top 20 to sign with a different account, but the point was to disable that shared witness that was known under a name and partnership we would no longer be supporting. Someone else could easily set up new infrastructure for much, much, much cheaper than the set of servers we were using for our top 20 spot. The account used to sign blocks as a witness doesn't actually matter, just the hardware and the software.

Selling the account privately to someone to keep running would be a really deceptive way to undermine the stake of people who voted for the account based on the belief they knew it was run by us, which I would simply never feel comfortable with. Also, I would not feel comfortable selling an account that spent so long in consensus even if it wasn't attached to a witness with a lot of governance votes, as it could be too easily used as a vector for something like a phishing attack. I'd much rather lay that account to rest alongside the witness and continue working solely under my own name and not having Jeff feel pressured to try to contribute more again.

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