Only to a very basic level. The people I have asked have mostly blown me off. And the info in layperson's language is not easy to find. It may amuse you to know that I have 2 degrees - 1 in classical music & 1 in journalism 🤣 - after getting blown off for the 7th or 8th time, I voted for 5 or 6 witnesses who I knew NOTHING about & havent looked at it since. I curate for both @natiralmedicine & @ecotrain & it rarely comes up, although @riverflows is the most active on this issue of all. I think the witness end of steem has huge amounts of bridge building & communicating to do.... to the end point, foot-soldier users.
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A witness isn't a person, it is a machine (run by a person). This machine processes the blockchain and without them, nothing moves. They take a percentage of the reward pool as payment for this service and this is why the transactions on Steem are free, unlike most other blockchains.
A witness is part of a network of machines that cross-reference and verify each block to check it for consistency, to make sure that it is valid. They are spread all over the world and give what used to be, a decentralized structure.
Witnesses are (were) voted in by the community based on the stake of users and this creates the "top 20" who are considered "consensus" witnesses. It is these 20 who agree on the changes to the code, with 17/20 needing to upgrade their machines (agree) to the new version to create the change. They are also responsible for submitting (sometimes) and testing the new code that will be deployed.
The decentralized nature of this setup is that quite a few people need to agree in order to make any code change on the blockchain. Now that all witnesses are controlled by a single entity, it means the chain is centralized. This puts everyone at far greater risk as one "person" makes the decision on what is okay to implement or ban - without even a discussion.
Where were you when I signed up? 🤣
Seriously, the person-machine issue stops people voting. What does this witness believe & what is their vision? When people don't know that, and are also privvy to lots of public spats, downvotes etc etc.... they do.... nothing. Post & engage, if they stay.
There is far more to evolving steem than code. The best leaders lead in the language of the slowest person & the last in the line.
Thank you for patiently explaining. I came to steem mostly due to my work with unbankable refugees in Burma - the no censorship thing & decentralized matters. The tech end often leaves me feeling like a total ditz.
There is (was) a decent mix of community witnesses (@ocd, @steempeak, @curie etc) and developer witness (@gtg, @themarkymark, @blocktrades, @therealwolf etc).
Not all coders are social animals, not all social witnesses can code.
As I see it, if one is going to invest into something, they best do their due diligence and have an understanding of what they are looking to hold.
I have only ever invested time into steem... earned all that I have.... & it was time I was already spwnding elsewhere. Many people, like me, dont come to steem as an investment. It's a tool only, for many.
Then, there is no need to do anything else. Just post wherever you post and don't worry about any of the economics of it. But if you want to earn, it is likely you will need to learn more about the system as it is part of the core value proposition of Steem. There are plenty of content delivery platforms that are willing for people to post there without the possibility to pay them anything - that isn't Steem.
I understand that. The uniqueness of steem - the decentralized & uncensored parts - are not found elsewhere where there is also an audience. I already have my own websites. Im explaining why so many dont use their witness votes, & that there's a lot simple, regular explaing needing to be done - by everone - about witnesses. They protect the integrity of the tool.