There are weeks when everything clicks. And then there are weeks when your child is recovering from spine surgery, your daughter needs your full attention, and Hive decides to drop a hardfork that will turn your node into a smoldering paperweight if you blink too slow.
Guess which kind of week I had?
Yeah. That one.
This is the story of Botlord, my Hive witness node, and how it went through a glorious breakdown, an emotional support session with my terminal, and a long, hard look in the digital mirror before rising again — faster, smarter, stronger.
You know, the kind of journey some coaches would call “unleashing your inner beast” and others would just scream “GOOD! MORE GRIT!” over.
📉 So... What Actually Happened?
Let me paint you a scene:
Hive announces Hardfork 28 (HF28), a critical infrastructure upgrade that’s all about performance, scalability, and getting us ready for the future. You know — the stuff you want running before your witness starts missing blocks like it's throwing a blockchain tantrum.
The new version — Hive 1.28.x — wasn’t just cosmetic. It wasn’t a gentle nudge. It was a full-on internal transformation: memory structures, how the chain handles state, and performance optimization across the board. And it came fast.
Which is fine.
Unless life is throwing actual, real-world chaos at you. Chaos like hospital visits, family emergencies, and trying to remember if you showered this week (I still don't remember, so I just showered before posting, don't want to ruin your day right?).
So, in the middle of all that, while I was trying to be a good dad and halfway-decent human, my witness node just… stopped.
No blocks. No logs. No love.
⚙️ The Technical Breakdown (for fellow node nerds)
Here’s what was actually going on under the hood:
HF28 introduced new consensus rules and a much more efficient memory management system, shifting to a newer
shared_memorylayout that’s lighter and faster — but completely incompatible with previous versions.This means: if you didn’t upgrade your binaries and regenerate your
block_logand reset yourshared_memory, your node didn’t just fall behind — it became a non-functional zombie with no way to process blocks correctly.Simply running
git pull && docker-compose down && up -dwasn’t enough. In my case, I had to:Fully wipe and regenerate
shared_memory(includingsmxfiles)Resync over 500GB of
block_log(shoutout to the seed nodes that didn’t crash during this)Fight with container issues and rogue processes that refused to die
Spend hours troubleshooting mirror latency, failed peers, and I/O stalls
The short version? My witness didn't just need an update, it needed a spiritual cleanse, a fresh install, and a RAM-heavy intervention.
🙋♂️ But Wait... What Does This Mean for a Regular Hive User?
If you’re just vibing on Hive, posting, curating, stacking HBD, and being generally awesome (yes! you!!), you may not have noticed much. And that’s the goal: the witness layer is supposed to be invisible when it’s working right.
But when it's not working? Here's what can happen:
Slower block production: Outdated or missing witnesses can lead to sluggish performance and potential missed blocks across the network.
Instability in consensus: A node that’s not updated can literally start forking off into la-la land, causing delays or issues with transactions.
Vote degradation: If your votes are on witnesses who aren't keeping up, you're unintentionally weakening the network's security and performance. Meaning: rethink your votes! Vote @botlord at (or your preferred frontend).
https://wallet.hive.blog/~witnesses / https://wallet.hive.blog/~witnesses
So yes, this stuff matters. Even if you never touch the terminal.
Witnesses aren’t just ticking boxes or earning block rewards. They’re literally the backbone of Hive’s decentralized governance and operation. If they fall asleep at the wheel, you feel it, even if you can’t immediately tell where it’s coming from.
So when one of us goes down, and comes back stronger? That’s not just a tech win. That’s network resilience. That’s trust rebuilt.
🔁 Back to Life: Botlord Reborn
After three days of debugging, rebuilding, praying to Satoshi, and contemplating switching careers to underwater basket weaving (yes! that IS a thing, and it is actually nicer than it sounds!), Botlord 2.0 came back online.
The node is now:
Fully synced with Hive v1.28.x+
Using the new shared memory model
Lean, clean, and stable as ever
Ready to produce blocks and earn your vote again (-> !)
https://wallet.hive.blog/~witnesses / https://wallet.hive.blog/~witnesses
The difference is night and day. Where before the node would occasionally struggle under heavy I/O load, now it handles it like a champ, low latency, smooth consensus syncing, and faster startup times.
In other words: we're not just back. We’re better.
🙏 Thanks for Sticking Around (and Reading This Far)
To all those who noticed I was out of rotation for a few days, thanks for your patience. And to those who didn’t? You just proved the system works even when we’re hanging on by command-line threads.
This whole thing was a reminder: Hive doesn’t stop evolving. And as witnesses, neither can we. And that is good news! Especially in these dire times.
So if you’re a Hive user wondering,
“Why should I care about a witness upgrade?”
Here’s why: because the strength and future of Hive depends on it. Not just on the code, but on the people behind the nodes. The dads in hospitals. The devs in basements. The silent backbone holding your content, rewards, and tokens together.
And this particular node? Is back. And stronger than ever.
🗳️ TL;DR Recap (because we all love a good summary)
Hive had a big hardfork (HF28)
It required major updates to witness infrastructure
Life threw curveballs -> my node crashed
Three days of rebuilding, syncing, and updating
Botlord 2.0 is now online, upgraded, and running Hive v1.28.x+
Vote @botlord if you want a witness who will literally crawl through digital hell to stay up
Want to keep Hive healthy? Support your witnesses. Ask questions. Hold us accountable. And maybe, just maybe, vote for the ones who show up even when life doesn’t make it easy.
Because sometimes, the strongest nodes are the ones that almost didn’t make it.
Just saying. 😎
📸 about my images
All photos are my own, shot on my iPhone and sometimes edited in Lightroom.
AI images? Those are created by me too, using my own prompts.
Explore more: Borniet On Hive
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💥 Tipping bots
Bring fun and positivity to Hive with tipping:
!INDEED – reward engagement → learn more
!HOPE – share positivity → learn more
!WEIRD – embrace the quirky → learn more Did you know you can check the status of these and other tipping bots (more to come) at https://tipping.botlord.eu ?
Yeah, this is why I stopped being a witness - my real life crises or super busy periods always coincided with witness issues.
Good luck to you for getting through it. HF28 sounds great. I might even run a consensus node on a SBC.
!INDEED, same thing here... I was a witness back in the Steem days as well, but then real life came inbetween, and messed up my plans :-) Nowadays the kids are older, and they were less dependent, giving me a bit more leeway. Until now that was :-D lol.
But should be doable!
Running a consensus node on a SBC sounds fun indeed! I was also thinking of trying to run a Hive or H-E node on my Raspberry Pi 5 with 16Gb Ram. But I'm a bit afraid of the replaying and such :-D
!HOPE
!PIZZA
!INDEED
!ALIVE
!BBH
!STRIDE
!HBIT
The HBIT token mining bot apparently got affected by the 28th Hive Hard Fork, as it has not been publishing comments since more than 3 days ago. 🤯
The LOLZ token tipping bot also continues to fulfill valid LOLZ token tipping commands, but without any comment like the HBIT does with the corresponding HBIT token mining commands. 🤔
The PIZZA token tipping bot appears to have totally stopped though. 😅
Well... the HF28 certainly did have quite some impact :-) That's for sure ;-) I hope that when the dust settles, the tools will get more stable again as well. I've had some issues with both Indeedly and Hope as well, due to some Node issues. Well... stuff happens.
Have you checked out https://tipping.botlord.eu already ;-) Have added quite some bots and info today ;-)
!HOPE
!PIZZA
!INDEED
!ALIVE
!BBH
Your webpage that shows the summary of the most recent transactions of most Hive tipping tokens is something that @savvyplayer would !INDEED love to see! 🤔😍😅 It does not include certain tipping tokens of working tipping bots though such as PIZZA and DUO, and shows tokens of inactive bots such as LUV. 🤯🤓
I really think that @cagolistic would also find your Hive-based app !FUN! 😎😏
!WEIRD
!HOPE
!HUG
Anyway, !HOPE that you soon break your current 4-day streak of not mining HBIT! 🤗😏
!WEIRD
!INDEED
!HUG
Sorry to hear about health issues with your kids... I hope they are doing well now... 💜
And regarding tech issues... They always happen in the worst possible time... I mean, when is it a good time to have issues?
Good to hear that your node is up and running on the latest version... Keep signing those blocks!
Thanks man! Truly appreciated! Our son is getting better now, that's already a good thing! Our daughter will need quite a lot more visits to doctors I'm afraid...
This also explains our absense in the HHH I hope... We're looking forward to joining again though!
And in the meantime... We keep signing those blocks for sure! ;-)
!HOPE
!PIZZA
!INDEED
!ALIVE
!BBH
No worries, man, about the HHHLive absence... Focus on family!
Wish you and your family all the best!
I was wondering how it went with your node for the HF, and now I know! The indomitable Badass @botlord @borniet rises again, and stronger than before! Congratulations, brother! 😁 🙏 💚 ✨ 🤙
!ALIVE
!BBH
!LOLZ
!PIZZA
Stronger than before, that's for sure!!! Been quite busy this week :-D lol
!HOPE
!PIZZA
!INDEED
!ALIVE
!BBH
That's the idea for sure! Your weeks are always busy, so are you talking hyper-busy or mega-busy? 😁🙏💚✨🤙
!ALIVE
!BBH
!PIZZA
!ZOMBIE
!LOLZ ! True that :-) They are always busy :-) This one was strangely busy, more like hyper-busy, but with a sense of easiness to it as well… :-D
!HOPE
!PIZZA
!INDEED
!ALIVE
!BBH
Ah, I see, so you're in the god-mode busy range! That's not a bad combo, I must say! 😁🙏💚✨🤙
!HOPE
!INDEED
!MMB
!STRIDE
!WEIRD
!ZOMBIE
Indeed! That’s the range we’re currently running in :-D
!BBH
!STRIDE
!UNICOIN
!WEIRD
Ooook that explains why my Vessel fails to work ... there was a silent HF.
Will have to find a new tool or is it being updated, no idea yet :(.
anyways, I saw that .BE in your domain... glad to see other belgians stills there.
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Aha!! You're a Belgian too I assume? Nice to hear! There are a few indeed, but not that many... Well, way too little even :-)
Yup, a HF, and it brought down quite some tools indeed, some only temporarily, due to nodes not being updated yet, but some more drastically I have the impression...
!BBH
!STRIDE
!UNICOIN
!WEIRD
Yeah, From brussels, but move to mons/bergen :)
The Vessel is being updated soon, so the tool is not lost, yay :)
!PIZZA
!INDEED
Nice! Worked in Brussels quite often in the past decades, now located in Halle, but I live near Turnhout. I do hear Mons is a pretty nice area to live!
Good thing about the Vessel being updated ;-)
!HOPE
!PIZZA
!INDEED
!ALIVE
!BBH
Sorry about your kid's health. Combining family emergency with your Hive's crucial responsibility and still came out stronger and better is true sign of dedication and resilience.
Congratulations!🎉
Thank you!
Yup, dedication and resilience are our keywords, that's for sure ;-)
!BBH
!STRIDE
!UNICOIN
!WEIRD
It's my pleasure!
Thanks,too!
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@borniet(11/15) tipped @tydynrain
borniet tipped itharagaian
borniet tipped ph1102
itharagaian tipped borniet
borniet tipped apshamilton
tydynrain tipped borniet (x2)
Please vote for pizza.witness!