It's past midnight here in Adelaide, South Australia - and I've just achieved one of my life long goals. I never really knew it as a life long goal, but the last few months on HIVE have seen me dedicate an enormous amount of time to writing, engaging with the community, and making some new friends. As of block 99,393,879 I am now running a Hive witness node!
https://vote.hive.uno/@holoz0r
You can vote for at the link above, but I encourage you to read further:
I believe in decentralisation of HIVE. I believe in having custody and ownership of your own stuff.
My witness node is located in my home, in Sunny South Australia. It is connected to the Internet using Fibre, and is connected to Electricity via Solar Panels and a battery. My power usage is so low at home, as a result, I am basically off-grid when it comes to power.
It is a server I own, one I can touch. One I can source replacement parts for if it dies, and one that I can turn a screw driver on if I have to.
My presence on the hive blockchain encompasses nine years and in my previous employment I have worked in Data Analytics, Business Improvement, Corporate Governance, Complaint Handling, Telecommunications and other fields. I am pretty good at seeing through bullshit, and bring an honest approach to all that I do.
I'm a bit of a nerd, can read documentation, and am a bit of a bulldozer when it comes solving problems. I don't like giving up.
My posting on hive is pretty varied, owing to my varied interests outside of posting to HIVE, so you are likely to see fiction, photography, game, book and film / tv reviews, as well as unhinged, heart-on-the-sleeve rambling.
My core belief is that content can bring value to HIVE. That we are a place where compelling human stories can be told without censorship, and reach a wide audience. My belief is that creatives will create things because they are compelled to do so, and will do it in lieu of the presence of any reward, because the reward is the process of creating itself.
My goal as a witness is to support original content creators, who use hive exclusively - through in depth comments, discussion, discourse, and manual votes. My secondary belief is that HIVE should be as decentralised as possible, which is why I love the fact that I now have a witness node operating in my own home - not in a data centre on leased hardware that I don't own.
I have made many friends here over the years, and have so many people to thank for keeping me locked into this place. Other than my prior employment, and my relationship with my family, and my wife - HIVE is the longest continuous engagement I have had in my life.
I'm here for the long haul. But right now, it is 00:55AM on a Sunday morning, and I need to sleep soon.
This is where I sit:
And just out of frame, on the right hand side of my digital paino:
The black box with the red sticker is the computer hosting my witness node. This machine also serves other important functions in my life, and has a long up time.
For the technical amongst you
- Running in an Ubtunu VM with 96GB of RAM and 900GB nVME SSD allocated, and 50% of the cores of an Intel i9 10900.
- On a UPS (the UPS is then backed up by the Solar Battery on the side of my house)
You can vote for me to be a witness below.
(you'll probably find me somewhere towards the bottom of the list)
https://vote.hive.uno/@holoz0r
https://peakd.com/me/witnesses
Or if you use ecency:
Scroll to the bottom, copy my username into "witness outside the top 50"
"holoz0r", and cast your vote.
Thank you. :) Please ask questions - comment rewarder is turned on for this post. I will answer in the morning when I wake up. :)
Congratulations! You have my vote. This is something I've always wanted to do. I have to look into making this a reality this year.
I will be happy to help you, with the limited knowledge I have obtained through this experience :)
Thank you both for the offer! I'm curious about what hardware I would need?
Looks like @seattlea has answered that already. :) Hardware is cheap (compared to your wanderlust) ;)
Air travel definitely isn't cheap anymore!
Feel free to contact me as well, I can help you set it up on pretty much any computer ;)
Thank you! This is great to know. Can you recommend a good computer for this?
It depends what you want to do. If you want just a witness you can run it of a decent laptop, but if you want an API Node then you should have a good machine as you will need at least 4TB of NVMe storage and 64 GB of RAM.
For basic Hive Witness all you need is this:
32 GB RAM
500 GB NVMe (SSD) storage
These are my recommended specs, but you really need only 4-8 GB RAM and 40 GB free disk space to run a witness...
Oh and ideally you are running on Ubuntu Linux and not on Windows / Docker...
To read more check out this excellent post by Marky:
https://hive.blog/witness/@themarkymark/setup-a-hive-witness-using-the-new-rolling-block-log-feature-jte
This is the guide I followed, wouldn't be here without it :)
Thank you! I really appreciate the info!
You are welcome :) The biggest issue is getting a compatible snapshot of the latest version if you want to run .11 version...
I might just create one from my Witness Node :)
Gave you one of my precious ticks.
I prefer old school home jobs vs. just all cloud stuff.
Oh also, the solar straight to UPS model is a great way to do it.
It goes through the home battery first! :P So its "double backed up!"
Another Adelaide hosted hive witness hits the blockchain, the decentralized cluster is expanding.
Thank you! Not only for your vote, but also for your encouragement at the last couple of months to tell me that doing such a thing was very much possible, despite my previous attempts to do so. Look forward to seeing you in a few weeks!
You're not as far at the bottom as you think you are, or maybe that just changed because people were like HELL YEH after reading this XD
Maybe, I still haven't validated a block yet - but I am the highest rated witness who is active who hasn't done that yet! I wonder when the first one will come in.
Dun voted, bro! 💪
!PIMP
!PIZZA
Thank you!
I like to hear that you host your own witness node, and that you are almost off-grid for power. You have my vote as well. You should set a description for your witness (the kind that shows in PeakD), so that I and others easier remember why I voted for your witness.
Thank you. I will consider the witness snippet over the coming days, and how to summarise what I have put into this post into a few, effective words!
Would you take back what you said about pickles?
I stick to my convictions on some matters. Pickles are not a food product. They are an agent of ingestible, botanical warfare.
🤣🤣
Want my vote? Send me a pic eating a pickle! 🤣
OF is in the other direction.
i want a ASMR video of holo eating a pickle...
All you'd get is an ASMR vomit video.
are these cat paw prints? I don't know how to vote for you, so I just downvoted all other witnesses... that should do it.
Yes, they are. Mia goes everywhere, but normally the server rack has its door closed. Trust you to notice the dust. :P
This is Mia & me on a cold winter's night. I was probably doing something on hive.
Aww, she's a pretty ball of fluff. your winters are are also july-October, no?
Winter is currently breaking down the last gasps of her screams. She moaned and bellowed for about three months. It was a very wet one this year.
yep, same here, but probably less cold on average, given we're so close to the equator
I am truly happy reading about your achievement being a Hive witness. I do not know anything about the tech stuff but your post is indeed inspiring. Been here on the platform since the takeover of the previous site. One way to vote is I went to your profile and simply click approve witness 😊
Cheers! I am using this as an opportunity to learn, and to broaden my technical horizons further - but my content quality will not be compromised in the interim. I intend to continue doing everything that I already do, just perhaps a tiny bit of my time devoted to hive will be in maintaining my witness node.
omg you're a witness? As if I wouldn't vote for you!
A recent development. Thank you for your support. I've validated 2 blocks so far! :)
You always have my support. To the end of time.
Done ✌️
I have long understood that the draw of platforms to users is the library of content they make available. It is why I have so vehemently opposed the broad suppression of content creators that has so prominently figured on Hive. I am also a strong advocate of decentralization. While I am focused on the tragic corruption of government and the brutal harm that causes society, so the game and media reviews, photography, and other content you share has been outside my primary interests, I have found often in conversation that our goals and purposes largely coincide.
You're just better at implementing technological solutions, and your server setup well shows this. I strongly feel that self-hosting witness nodes is necessary to decentralized, censorship-resistant social media, and that every dependence on other people's hardware renders us vulnerable to censorship every bit as much as dependence on software protocols and platforms does. Anything for which we require permission is a vulnerability, and your server epitomizes decentralization and censorship resistance.
I find it tragic that Hive gets so much right, but the constant flagging of creators counters and degrades it all by winnowing their number. I eventually have realized that the flimsy excuses and insensible claims made by those that practice such censorship are disingenuous and conceal avarice, because that censorship enables an oligarchy to maintain control of Hive governance, and that is the real reason it afflicts Hive. As a new witness you will be challenging that paradigm, which I strongly support and encourage.
It is serendipitous that just as you spin up a witness, I am notified as I read this post about it that I need to refresh my witness votes. One of my witness votes is going to you as soon as I perform that support maintenance, and I will look forward to your principles demonstrating your implementation and support for the security of Hive with my vote from now on.
Thanks!
I saw your comment shortly before I went to bed, and I appreciate your remarks on the matters that you write about. You clearly demonstrate a sharp, keen intellect, and your writing is impactful to those who do read it.
I do know that a lot of what I post is mundane and mostly ineffectual, but I am, someone - who after all my education (in which I did quite well) , stood to my convictions and decided to go study Visual Arts at university instead of the more "Traditional" pathways that were open and available to my "academic excellence" such as medicine, law and surprisingly - with a high enough score: journalism.
I am a stern and stoic believer in the value of Art as a critique upon society, and its potential to be used as an agent of change. I wrote a post about a month ago discussing that - "Art is a Threat"
I have no criticism of your interests and posts. I just only have so much time to research, and I need to focus. What is important to me is your technical ability and cogent understanding of the issues that matter, which I feel you do.
Art can be very impactful. Bansky's mural on an English court building has recently prompted the government to remove it hastily, because it showed a judge beating an English civilian with a gavel. That's a very strong metaphor for what is going on in Britain today, and millions of Brits will viscerally understand they are not alone - were they to see it.
Absolutely. Different pathways to the same scathing critique of the organised louts who masquerade in the public best interest, but end up serving their own, or the lobbies of nepotism that come out of the cracks like insects, eager to devour the structure; might they get the grant to rebuild it.
My technical ability is limited compared to the prowess of other witnesses. I do not see myself in direct competition with them, because, on a technical skill set, I would be bested considerably.
But I can hold my hand up with pride and say, "here is a node", "it is mine", and only enhance, learn, and grow my skills in operating a piece of software that allows this place to continue functioning.
It's not a competition to secure the chain. While there is clearly competition for higher rank, it's a cooperative effort to secure Hive, and I am aware that Marky, for example, whose chops are significant, has provided node monitoring software he provides to witnesses. In that cooperative effort interpersonal chops matter as much as technical prowess, because enabling all nodes to provide the best security depends on mutual effort. No witness can do it alone. If they tried they'd create a fork.
I will shortly be using the very same software that Marky has available on github to monitor my own node. Their help was instrumental in me getting the node up and running.
Coincidentally :D
Voted!
@blanchy is one of my favourite authors. He deserves the share of his post! :)
Wow mate fair play to you . I’m gonna go vote for you now .
The wheels were already in motion before you posted your treatise on where are all the witnesses. The timing worked for me. Great minds, and all that.
What rank are you . I’m at a match and can’t find you in there .
Il have to get in a few heavy hitters . @cryptoandcoffee this guy is a bollocks like you . You should give him a witness vote . 109 on the list.
I do have a free vote, and I do appreciate their posts. Edit: I am so dumb (I was fixing a clothesline in the sun today) - this was not directed at me to vote for their witness... lol. Back into the dungeon with me!
I have a UPS back up system and a server in my back office in work . Hmmmmmmm interestinger and interestinger
Have ya
Now when was the last time you posted you cnut 😜
Daily, except yesterday - which was two posts. Some of it ends up in myriad communities and I often forget to share it back to my blog.
I know that silly billy . I was just fucking with ya . Sure you are always around . Can’t get you out of the place . 😜
Done! Good luck and godspeed my friend.
Thank you! I am sure I will come across many problems during the process of keeping the node operational, but what doesn't kill me, will make me smarter :)
Welcome to the Witness club :) I have just voted for your Hive Witness.
BTW, you will make it more convenient for people to vote for you if you make a link in the following format, like mine for example:
https://vote.hive.uno/@seattlea
Just change to your name then people can vote for you with ONE Click :)
Thank you! There are so many services surrounding hive it is impossible to know them all.
Congratulations on setting up your witness , still on my to do list got the server already running just need to install the witness in my proxmox one day .
Will cast a witness vote ... and done good luck !
Mine is using unraid as the hypervisor. I learn more about sys admin, I think I will eventually move to something like proxmox. That will be for whenever I upgrade my hardware - which will likely be when I am gainfully employed again in the future.
You have my vote. I've only followed your blog recently but I'm pretty sure that HIVE needs witnesses like you.
(By the way, Peak doesn't give the option to type in somebody's nick and I had to switch to Ecency, which I normally don't use. Or maybe I'm just too thick to find it.)
Well, some five hours later, I am now showing in the list on peakd, so you just need to scroll down.
Congratulations! Voted for you already, glad that you're taking your knowledge to the next level. Or trying to. This kind of commitment is pretty neat, and I hope it turns out to be a situation where everybody wins!
Thanks mate. Your advocacy for all things HIVE is definitely not going unnoticed!
Got my vote.
Is that a NAS? I've been meaning to get a QNAP NAS set up for my audio and video work. I always seem to find a more urgent thing to allocate my money to though.
Thank you.
Yes, it is a NAS.
For the technical details, the machine on which my Witness Node is running (in a virtual machine) is running Unraid. It is a machine with a 10 core, 20 thread cpu, 128GB of ram, 2x 1tb nvme, and about 80TB of spinning rust.
My photographic and creative workflows are such:
Shoot -> Send Card Data to a Directory on a Share on Unraid -> Edit from NAS
QNAP does a nightly sync with Unraid directory (and backs up two copies - one on each of its disks).
At 3AM, The QNAP sends encrypted data to OneDrive for offsite back up.
At 4AM, The QNAP syncs its data to an external HDD, which is plugged in next to it.
Last year, when there was a bushfire warning (it happens all the time in Australia) - I wasn't home, so I told my wife to unplug the Hard Drive, and the QNAP, and to bring it with her as she went off to a safer place with the neighbours.
My next NAS will likely be a Minisforum style box - because I want flash to ensure my editing is fast, straight from the NAS.
https://store.minisforum.com/products/minisforum-n5-us
QNAP is easy as anything to use, though - Synology have similar offerings.
Always happy to vote for a fellow witness running hardware from home!
Great to hear there's not just one of me!
Voted!
Good luck in working your way up the ranks!
Would appreciate a vote as well.
Earnestly I will admire the set-ups. Cheers!
$PIZZA slices delivered:
@definethedollar(2/20) tipped @holoz0r
Come get MOONed!
witness approved.
Okay. You convinced me
you got my vote
Nine years really is a great deal of dedication, Hive is stronger with people like you who believe in ownership , decentralization and resilience. You earned my vote
Thank you. I do not plan on going anywhere soon! :)
Of course, you have my vote 💪
Thanks for your support, and thank you for all you do for top comment. I hope that you are feeling better given your recent medical issues I've seen posted on snaps.
I'm all better now, thank you very much, and good luck as a new witness on Hive.
I found out you did it on snap and I hurried over to your profile to see what else you do apart from trying to be a witness. I am glad I did because I saw you are one of us (fiction writers) and yes, I am happy to vote for you as a witness on behalf of all of us.
Thank you. I am not very one dimensional. I have too many dimensions that I yearn to do all the things I am interested in - and then get sad at not being able to explore them all as deeply as I would like to.
But I don't like to splash in shallow ponds, either. I like to go to the verge of drowning in the detail, before coming up for air to go splash in a different puddle for a little bit.
Well, that's an easy yes. On my way to polling station...
!BBH
Done,
Good luck with climbing the ranks.
Thank you. Everything is still running smoothly, and I'm already plotting hardware upgrades and redundancy for my node :)
@holoz0r, I paid out 4.712 HIVE and 0.000 HBD to reward 23 comments in this discussion thread.