Hi to everyone on the Hive Blockchain!
If your new! WELCOME! š
If you've been here awhile! HEY! š
PART I
Today's post is the consolidation of several years of thinking and learning about the DPOS (Delegated Proof of Stake) system we all operate with and empower ourselves by here on the Hive Blockchain!
For those of you who were here during our transition away from the centralized blockchain previous... That would have been your crash course on how important our Witness's are! A baptism by fire in finding out just why your 30 Witness Vote's are so imperative to the integrity and future of this Blockchain.
At that time, just over a year ago, the crisis prompted me to put aside all other projects and priorities in order to do as much due diligence as I possibly could in selecting the right Witness's to carry us forward during that turbulent and tense time of transition.
Picking the ones who were most dependable and qualified wasn't easy to do... There just wasn't enough time to really figure out who I was voting for with my Hive Power.
The Hive Blockchain has gotten to where it has based on the merit and minds that we voted into those positions during that time and those votes were predominately based on the specific challenges Hive was facing at the time.
I believe that it's time to take a careful look at where we collectively are and where we need to take the Hive Blockchain (in my opinion), with specific attention to the things that (I believe) need to change.
Now... before moving on, I would like to take this opportunity to specially thank each and every one of the Hive Witness's (the ones I voted for and the ones I didn't vote for) who protected the integrity of the Hive Blockchain. Hive is a place where I have chosen to invest my finite time to build human connections as well as construct my business ideas AND it is also the place where I am actively investing significant amounts of my own financial capital. There's just so many reasons to thank each and every one of you!
THANK YOU!
PART II
Having acknowledged those who have gotten us this far and kept us all together under the Hive banner... I would also like to carefully approach the topic of Witness evaluation and the future of our blockchain... Because yes! That's what this is... It's an opportunity for each and every one of us to step into our roles... AS OWNERS!
Because that is what we all are. We all OWN, in small or big ways, this Blockchain.
That's why this is a decentralized opportunity and it doesn't work without understanding (seriously!) how and why DPOS (Delegated Proof of Stake) works.
As soon as we #PowerUP we become contributors in the wider Hive community. We become stake holders and OWNERS so that means Hive's future does matter.
With every Hive Token that get's PoweredUP... That is what we are in essence saying!
"HIVE MATTERS... And so I am building my future right HERE!"
When we PowerUP we are drawing a line in the sand and choosing to stand TOGETHER!
So it's time to start talking about what matters...
And I guess I'll start!
For me, there are 2 primary things to improving the Hive Experience and reinforcing Hive's integrity and continuance. These have been increasingly on my mind these days...
1ļøā£ I would like Hive to become a muuuuuuch friendly destination. A place that I can continue to invite my friends, family, and famous. A healthy environment where unfriendly activity is the exception rather than the considered norm.
2ļøā£ I would like for us to continue to innovate and find creative ways to further community involvement. When we strengthen the decentralized systems we have worked so hard to build (and sacrificed so much to sustain) we give HIVE OWNERS continued reasons for PoweringUP their Hive and takingUP long term residence. That means taking some time to re-think and further evolve our community culture and brand presence on and off the blockchain.
WHY THESE THINGS NEED TO CHANGE
If we continue to use the mindsets that got us here we will continue to get the same results we have been getting.
I, for one, would like to capitalize fully on the next Bitcoin Bull Run. (I don't believe we managed to get enough traction to make this happen... currently.)
Plainly, I would like for us to come together (as a community 1st initiative) and REALLY SHOW THE WORLD WHAT WE HAVE TO OFFER AND WHY IT'S NEEDED!
During the next #Bitcoin Bull Run we need to be in the top 10 for crypto projects... And we are going to have to THINK BIG if that is going to happen!
The Hive Blockchain is currently in 193rd spot according to www.coinmarketcap.com š
https://coinmarketcap.com/?page=2
If Dodge can be in 6th spot... There's NO REASON what-so-ever why Hive, with it's solid fundamentals, can't easily make it into a top 10 position. It's really up to all of us to decide... AND MAKE IT HAPPEN!
...and with everything we have done up until now... there's no reason that cant happen! DPOS and this community DOES have that potential!
If I didn't think so I wouldn't continue to invest my time and capital into this Blockchain!
PART III
So I figured that it might be helpful, as a step 1, to set an example.
It's time to evaluate my current list of Witness's based on some criteria that came to my mind...
The list that follows is by no means complete but I think it is a good start.
If any of you can think of some more relevant and important aspects to evaluate Witness's by or if you have any input or ideas you would like to share... please leave them in the comments bellow for all of us to consider and discuss openly.
I believe that this evaluation of my current Witness Vote is super important to the integrity and furtherance of the Hive Blockchain and because the crypto space is ever shifting we should also be flexible in our approach to the Witness Votes we have cast. That's the power of DPOS! We are dynamic with our ability to establish consensus while other projects are slow moving, static, and stale.
We get to reinvent the rules of the game whenever we want... and if we play to that strength and get used to adjusting on the fly... we are settingUP the game to win...
FOR US ALL!
So, over the next couple months, I will be taking some time to REALLY get to know our current Witness's and re-evaluate them based on the list (bellow) and what I am able to learn going forward.
If you are a Hive Witness I would really love to get to know you and what you are doing for our Blockchain! Please comment bellow and I'll boost you to the top of my evaluations list! It doesn't matter what your Witness Rank is! What matters more (to me anyways!) is the following 10 determinants:
WITNESS REQUIRMENTS
ā We got to know WHO they are. No shadowy figures obfuscated into the background. We have to know WHO we are voting for in order to know WHY we are voting for them.
ā At the very least we need to know WHAT they do for the blockchain. If we know WHAT they do then it is possible to render a decision on WHO they are and WHAT they are about; if itās good for the blockchain, YES or NO.
ā Accountable practices. No side stepping; but straight shooting, caring for the community of users and its culture, candid about WHAT they think, WHAT they do, WHY they do it. This determines WHO they are SO they absolutely NEED to be fully transparent and open.
ā Active. (Need I say more!?) Mission orientated. Driven. They want to win and they are willing to do whatever it takes (so long as itās honest) to set up the game for others to win.
ā Do they care about people first or themselves first? Whatās more important to them? Social Capital or Financial Capital?
ā
They arenāt a part of a Vote Circle Click or Reward Rebalance Scheme.
What are they telling me? What arenāt they telling me? What do they VALUE? (What do their actions say about this?)
ā Is what they are doing solving a hair on fire problem? What are the size of problems they are solving? Do they do this with input from the community? Are they team players?
ā Is how they show up daily healthy for the community culture? Are they classy? Do they approach everything personably and professionally? (If not how can I tell my family, friends, and famous about the Hive Opportunity... right?)
ā Who do they affiliate and identify with? Do those people meet the above criteria? (Who someone keeps company with tells a lot about that person.)
ā Are they PoweringUP their Hive consistently? We need people who think long term about the Hive Blockchain and have actual skin in the game. This is a legit opportunity... not someone's pump and dump project. How they think about innovating the future of freedom and digital social matters. BIG THINKING ONLY! I want to be inspired! āļø
So there you have it. I am going to spend some time evaluating each Witness I currently vote for based on these make or break requirements and I'm also going to give lower rank witness's some thought as well.
These people are people running code that keeps all of our ideas and dreams alive and well... therefore, a careful and considerate evaluation is obvious common sense.
We, also, want to avoid the corruption of absolute power that can happen from a static, stagnant upper level Witness Vote... Besides that... Fresh ideas are always a good thing especially during the innovation stage of any project worth it's salt.
AND No matter how good those Witness's my be... they are accountable to us all... We are ALL DPOS Owners.
Thatās the point of having the ability to vote, yes?
The accountability of the vote is what balances out all that power.
Freedom isnāt free.
We all have a responsibility to invest ourselves into the community and learn about the blockchain we call home if we want to keep this environment healthy and growing.
The Witness Vote is what keeps opportunity and freedom for all. It's the first and foremost frontlines that keeps our futures intact.
So we all need to do our part in this fundamental way...
ā IF YOUR NEW TO THE BLOCKCHAIN... take some time to learn about the Witness's that maintain our freedoms and secure our digital future's.
ā IF YOUāVE BEEN HERE AWHILE... take some time to think carefully about WHO your Witness Vote is for and WHY you vote for them. Maybe it's time to shuffle the deck...?!
Either way... Now could be a good time to do your due diligence. Itās always a good time to review your Witness Votes... And the best part about that is you don't have to wait. You can do it RIGHT NOW!
š CLICK BELLOW TO GET STARTED! š
I believe that winning canāt happen without taking the time to do this carefully... and if we are to win we can't do it alone. It must be done TOGETHER!
EACH OF OUR VOTES DO MATTER... AND THIS IS WHY DPOS MATTERS.
This is why we came to this blockchain...
Because we all saw the opportunity to become the OWNERS of our own ideas, dreams, and destines.
WE are the change WE want to see.
So letās change and grow every day... TOGETHER.
...because a stagnant environment is an unhealthy one.
Thank you all for reading... and thank you as well for your consideration.
@wil.metcalfe
#HighFive Coordinator
Certified Personal Trainer
Fitness Entrepreneur
@beachready
@adventureready
@actifit
@onemorenutrition
@everystepcounts
Ā
P.S. Another thing before I leave off... please please please donāt give away your power... setting up a proxy Witness Vote, although easy, is just that. A relinquishing of you freedom, rights, and power on this blockchain.
Becoming someone of integrity in a decentralized environment means that you step into the gaps when you see them, you take ownership because you are an owner, and you vote your Witness Vote with care and consideration... PERSONALLY. Evolving personal freedom means taking the time to think for yourself... and then vote.
Think about it..
P.S.S. One more thing... I mentioned the need for a Community 1st approach to marketing the Hive Blockchain? Do you believe in that? If you do that makes the two of us! Well... more than that actually!
There's a growing movement happening over on Twitter where people are are taking the initiative! (Hive is GREAT right! We can't keep this to ourselves!)
If you would like to join us in promoting Hive on Twitter then your probably also interested in supporting @NathanMars's Proposal 170.
The idea is to gather support for Community 1st activities with a focus on getting Hive out on Twitter!
All the developers and witness's are working hard on the back end and Hive is looking GREAT! It's time for all of us bright brains to put some brain juice into promoting Hive on all the Social 2.0 front ends.
We love Hive and have made it our Home and I'm sure there's lots and lots of people out there looking for the Hive Opportunity!
Let's tell em on Twitter!
Let's make that systematic so we can all #Win!
Vote for your witness's...
...and while your at it Vote for proposal 170! š
š https://peakd.com/me/proposals/170 š
Great analysis of the importance of witnesses.
I like your witness selection criteria too.
I think I pretty much meet all of them. :-)
As Hiveās only lawyer (or at least the only one who admits it), I have a unique role in helping out of legal issues affecting Hive as a whole and alerting the community to important legal developments for the cryptocosm.
A lot of top witnesses are not active on chain. I know many do a lot of dev work behind the scenes but it is very important that Hiveans get to see their witnesses active in community on-chain.
The text is interesting and useful ;))
I'm glad you dug into it. I hope that what I shared was useful in deciding what Witness's you should vote for!
What keeps me going each and every day on Hive is a vision for a friendlier more welcoming Hive.
I know that we can do this... It's just a matter of realization.
Strangers are just friends we haven't met yet... and we can change, grow, and stay open to the wide wide world one effort at a time... If it's a small step in the right direction... It could actually endUP being a HUGE step for all of us! š
Thanks for contributing to the Witness awareness with this post.
Choosing which witness to vote for kind be tricky, some people might not even be bothered because of the time it could take to learn about the witnesses before the vote. Vote decision criteria can also depend on who you are, like for example if you are a regular user, an investor, another witness etc...
As a witness myself, I usually try to spread my vote between new / established witnesses and update my votes once in a while based on what new I learn about currently voted witnesses etc... One of my criteria is whether I had contact with the witness before and how helpful they were helping me becoming a better witness. But that one can be "overridden" by other events. It's complicated but everyone needs to come up with their own way of choosing witnesses to vote for.
Your list of criteria above is a good starting point but everything needs to be flexible. For example (and it's probably arguable), being active on the blockchain. Some of witnesses might not be active but their contributions to the blockchain might be important. Not everyone has social skills, so they might not want to post or comment that regularly but their technical skills can be very high and their contributions as a witness can be important for the stability and security of the network.
I am a new witness and I come with suggestions to revolutionize Hive. We have been working pretty much the same way ever since Hive was Steemā¦ This annoys meā¦
But I am syncing my witness node and today, or at most, tomorrow, it will come online. But I am already starting my campaign to gather support for HF26 which would be a beacon for deeper changes, to make Hive competitive with the top blockchains, more decentralized, robust, scalable and with on chain smart contracts!
You can read about my long term vision for Hive to be a great and modern blockchain, and what I think we need to do, and what will be the advantages of this vision for the next 20 years on Hive:
https://ecency.com/hive-148441/@igormuba/what-upgrade-i-envision-for
A great journey starts with a small step, so I am making a proposal to start making that vision come true on HF26 by increasing the number of total witnesses per round from 21 to 27, it is a small step, the end goal is 120 total witnesses with 0.5s (half a second) block time, but it is just a move that would signal consensus to the vision of a better, faster, more decentralized, robust and more modern Hive blockchain, which would be followed by more demanding changes:
https://ecency.com/hive-139531/@igormuba/increase-number-of-witnesses-to
Click here and vote me for witness
Hi @wil.metcalfe, HIGH FIVE! Sorry I missed this post earlier.
Having recently set up a Hive witness while also operating a Hive-Engine witness here are a few things I think are important when it comes to choosing your witnesses.
For what itās worth, thatās my 2 cents.
Yay! š¤
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You guys at @ecency ROCK! Thank you for all your doing to make the Hive Blockchain better and better and thank you for the support! š
Great summary of what the voting part is all about. I do also like the criteria you set up. This would already disqualify several witnesses from the top spots...
I am also a hive witness, only since 5 months ago, but I am here on hive (formerly steem) 3 years already. I have made the step of becoming a witness only recently, because I wanted to contribute more to the hive ecosystem. I myself am from Austria and a part of the DACH community here on hive.
What are my contributions for hive? I am trying to increase the awareness of people about witnesses and regularly reminding people to check their votes. Therefore I have created an awesome tool, which will immediately show "outdated" witnesses. You can check it out over here - you are voting for an inactive witness by the way ;) https://primersion.com/witnesses/wil.metcalfe
Besides that I am currently mainly focusing on Hive-engine (I am also running a hive-engine witness node) and the tool mentioned above, also provides functionalities for that. Since hive-engine is a strong part of hive (currently - maybe this will change in the future?), I am trying to support that as good as I can as well.
Anyways feel free to check out my hive witness announcement, I think it is a bit outdated, but you will find more about me in more recent posts :) https://peakd.com/witness/@primersion/becoming-a-witness
I would really appreciate you to check out my tool, my posts and maybe you will consider voting for me even :)
EDIT: I am upgrading my node to HF25 right now, if you are wondering why it is disabled ;)
Hi @primersion!
Today, being Fatherās Day, was a busy one!
Thank you for commenting! As a Witness Iām excited that my words have reached you! Iām even more excited about the project you described!
Tomorrowās, being a mundane Monday, will be another busy one but Iāll do my best to come back to your comment and give you a proper response and also check out your project and look more at your blog here on Hive!
#HighFive! š
@wil.metcalfe
No worries, take your time and have a nice week!
By the way the upgrade to version 1.25.0 was successful and I just signed my first block with the new version, which means my node is ready to go for HF25 :)
Content consuming and commenting. These definitely needs to change. The automated upvotes are ruining the social aspect of the Hive blockchain, because the content curators do not even see the content they curate.
Nowadays the average number of comments per post is 2-3, and most of those comments are bot comments. There are many content curators, but only a few content consumers. I see even some of the sponsored posts are without any comments.
Considering these, the Hive blockchain probably not look like an attractive and alive place, but more like a ghost town.
This is a great look at some of the requirements that are important when choosing witnesses. It is kind of crazy looking at the fact sometimes that some of the higher ranked witnesses are inactive, don't publish a price feed, are iterations behind in updates, and don't contribute any value to the chain any longer. We have so many great witnesses, but the rankings could be improved, and HF25 will help that with the new vote decay.
If you are looking for lower ranked witnesses to consider @wil.metcalfe , I would be happy to speak with you further. I spend a good portion of my free time contributing to some of the free libraries for interacting with Hive and supporting projects in the wider ecosystem. I run the @sicarius witness and plan to use most of the funds to support projects and improvements in the ecosystem, as well as do my part powering up as well! My discord is sicarius#5201 if you'd like to speak further, and an easy witness link is https://vote.hive.uno/@sicarius
Great post, brings good attention to how the whole community can take part in governance!
Hi @sicarius!
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I'm glad that you commented as well... It shows that your head is in the game and your attentive to the people using this blockchain. Continue staying relevant like this my friend! I really appreciate this high touch approach. We need witness's that are listening, care, and put a human face on the Hive Blockchain. This translates into a friendlier blockchain. Just what we need to succeed! š
It's been a busy one today...
I'm going to just drop this quick note to you here but I'll be doubling back to this comment and also your blog to look around later in the week when I have a little more breathing space.
I noticed that you made a post about being up and running with HF25 already! Your on the ball and that's something I'll be also checking out as I evaluate the current witness list.
Thank you again for caring to comment, upvote, and keep us all up to speed with your Witness activities.
@wil.metcalfe
Nice
Please tell me more my friend... I'm looking for some thoughtful feedback about this topic. Perhaps when you have a little more time to think about it and comment? Anyways! At least I know your eye balls have been on this post. Thank you for that! š
@wil.metcalfe