I am in process of setting up a full API node on my own physical server.
My witness is currently running on this powerful machine and I've just built and will soon have running a backup witness node (which will become my primary witness when my primary goes full API).
switched some votes around to support both dbuzz and you :-D
Thanks for the witness vote.
@someguy123 is the CEO and Founder of @privex, a company with a lot of servers.
https://d.buzz/#/@privex/c/re-chrisrice-qmxzwe
Posted via D.Buzz
Can you make a video of the Hardware sharing that it's yours, or at least being used by You.
(A.k.a. Your not renting through a standard company like AWS or Privex)
I will vote for your Witness w/ @dbuzz if you can do that, and we should start a campaign about this.
Posted via D.Buzz
Here is a witness selfie showing my primary and backup I just got running.
Pretty cool having fibre direct to my desk eh!
Ahh okay @apshamilton.
I've actually not seen what a server looks like, at least not lately.
Is that the typical Physical Server you are using, or is it just a Desktop computer?
( I'm not tech savvy enough to know offhand )
Posted via D.Buzz
I'm running my witness nodes on mainstream hardware (in the PC cases connected to the screen) - that's the whole point.
The point is that a suitably speced "desktop PC" can be a "witness server" or even API Node server.
The top box & right screen is my brand new backup witness CPU Intel i5 8400 6 core, 24Gb RAM (bought extra 16Gb this afternoon) and 450 GB of SSD (250Gb NVME + 3 x 60Gb SATA). Running Ubuntu 20.04.
The bottom box and left screen is currently my primary witness but planned to become API node.
It is CPU Intel 6800k 6/12 core 128Gb RAM, 3TB SSD (2 x 1TB NVMe RAID0 + 500 GB NVMe + 500GB SATA)
Running Windows 10 Home with witness running in Ubuntu 20.04 in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2).
I built both these machines myself with my bare hands.
Only by owning and being able to build and upgrade the physical hardware can we ensure independence from service providers that may ban us.
Also its far cheaper than renting servers. You can buy parts and build for less than 9 months rent in most cases.
Here are some pics from inside.
Backup
Primary
And I will run your post by @nathansenn the next time I talk to him.
Just repackage the comment.. we can start a campaign for using personal hardware for Witnesses 😎👋🎉
Posted via D.Buzz
Thanks for the spruiking my witness, Chris.
I'm going to do a witness update shortly which will include the above.
I just got the script to automatically fail-over to my backup witness working.
Awesome, and yes, we need more people running their own Witness Hardware.
Good job 🙂👍
Posted via D.Buzz
nice! hive needs this.
Yes, and badly, before it is too late ✔️
Posted via D.Buzz
So far..
Are the two Witnesses to step forward with evidence of owning their Witness Server Hardware.
A #NotYourHardwareNotYourWitness would be a good campaign on #HIVE imo @theycallmedan ✔️
https://d.buzz/#/@privex/c/re-chrisrice-qmxzwe
Posted via D.Buzz
I know you didn't ask us, but here's a photo of one of our @privex racks in Sweden - with our logo on it for confirmation :)
(the photos are a bit old, ignore the steemit.com link)
Thank you @someguy123 😊
I am actually very interested in this.
Posted via D.Buzz
Amazon has already shown its stripes as a politically motivated anti-free speech company.
Privex is the opposite. Very pro free speech and decentralization and located in Belize so the US government can't easily pressure it.
All third party providers are a risk but Privex is probably the safest option if you have to use a third party provider.
Also @someguy123 is a great guy who has helped me heaps in getting my witness nodes running.
Yeah, I don't know that many people yet @apshamilton since I still am fairly new.
But I replied in this thread about why I think Witnesses who own THEIR OWN hardware, IN THEIR possession, is even more secure than #Privex.
Times are changing, it's getting real, and BIG Governments + Corporations + Billionaires have a lot of sway.
I love people, and I want to get to know @someguy123 and everyone else in the #HIVE community, but IMO the above makes sense, and is intended to save ALL of us from getting wiped out by Governments and #BigTech.
Feelings aside, #NotYourHardwareNotYourWitness.
Actually, since we're Belize-based, not US based, we can stand up for free speech to the max. It's extremely difficult to legally threaten a Belize-based company to censor anyone or hand over data due to it's lack of MLATs (check my comments, I explained this in a reply a few weeks ago).
One example - there's still a fair amount of Steem witnesses who use our services, we just don't actively assist them with Steem-specific packages. While we morally disagree on what Steemit Inc. has done, and their witnesses - we try to stand neutral, and won't "ban" anyone for anything that isn't clearly illegal (child porn, terrorism, etc.)
Recently, @privex was labelled as "Bulletproof Hosting" on a large Japanese wiki due to us refusing to comply with the Japanese police in the name of free speech :)
https://krsw-wiki.org/wiki/%E9%98%B2%E5%BC%BE%E3%83%9B%E3%82%B9%E3%83%86%E3%82%A3%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B0
Nice, so #Privex might be better than #AWS and other alternatives, but Witnesses who own their own Hardware is even more secure than that @someguy123.
There is also the issue of:
Companies AND Countries changing or even breaking their policies & laws (i.e. John McAfee was arrested in Spain, a country that had laws against him being arrested on behalf of the US)
Most #HIVE Witnesses are likely using #Privex, and it's better to decentralize among 20+ unique entities, vs. having 10 - 20 Witnesses securing the blockchain with just 1 to 3 hosting companies.
Witnesses should compete for votes, and IMO they need to compete by buying their own Hardware.. it's better for everyone @someguy123, and @apshamilton made it sound like it can even save You money.
I warned Witnesses, especially #TheCryptoDrive that exchanges could be used to take over the #Steem blockchain and it happened.
I was against the #HBDPotato proposal, and those funds were later Powered Up for personal use.
If we are going to stand against Governments, Billionaires, Conglomerates and #BigTech, I think it's common sense we should secure the network with OUR OWN hardware, not via 3rd parties like #AWS or #Privex, regardless of their standing.
#NotYourHardwareNotYourWitness
P.S. Do you work for #Privex, or was that just a quote from them, not you?
@Someguy123 is the CEO and founder of Privex Inc. - as shown on our site https://www.privex.io/about
Unfortunately, Privex isn't actually popular among the top 20, believe it or not - there's maybe 3 or 4 of the top 20 (including @someguy123 - who owns his own physical server in SE) spread across Privex's 7 regions (SE, US, DE, FI, JP, NL, CA), and our regions are spread across different company's datacenters, rather than just one company who owns all of the DCs in every region.
A lot of our Hive customers are either rank <30, or simply use us for seeds, RPC nodes, or hosting their Hive-related applications.
Ah okay, awesome thank you @privex and @someguy123 that makes sense and is GREAT news!! 😀
I hope more people will get listed and people will vote 😀🎉🏆
I would like to take this a step further and port the nodes to meshnets for ultimate decentralization (as far as I know).
WOW teach me how to do that @diggndeeper.com
Please do one and tag me so I can see it! 😀
Posted via D.Buzz
@apshamilton said he bought his hardware w/the equivalent of 9 months worth of server rent
It would be good if the #Top20, and all Witnesses used their own Hardware of some kind, in THEIR possession, not via #Privex or #AWS
Posted via D.Buzz
I really don't think its fair to bundle AWS and Privex together for the reasons set out above.
There is a place for rented servers, but balance and diversity is needed.
I am lucky to have a home with very high speed internet, reliable power, the space to put multiple tower case computers, lots of left over computer equipment from ETH mining in 2017/18, and the skills to build computers from parts.
Many witnesses don't have this. Some don't even have a fixed address. Very few people have fibre to their desk at home. Some live in places where power outages are quite common.
I do think that its worthwhile buying hardware rather than renting it if you can afford to (but not all can).
Even if you have to pay for hosting at a small data center, the risk of a small operator interfering with your owned hardware or breaking contract by turning it off is far lower than with Big Tech companies that think they are beyond the law.
Also, if you own the hardware its easier to keep running nodes even when witness earnings are low because of a low Hive price.
There IS a place for rented servers, and I am interested in using @privex in the future ✔️
BUT,
We need the hardware securing the #HIVE blockchain to be divided among 20+ different HARDWARE OWNERS, not among 19, 10, 5 or 3 hosting co.'s who then lease to the #Top20
Posted via D.Buzz
If you are interested in using @privex, you might want to use it as a Backup Node (in case, hopefully not, that the @dbuzz witness encounters issues). 🤔
Yeah, I was thinking the same 😀
Posted via D.Buzz