[Witness Campaign] Agoric Systems kindly asks you for your vote to become Witness

[agoric.systems]

Greetings Steem Community!

Today on Independence Day 2017, We at Agoric Systems officially launch our campaign to become a witness on the Steem blockchain. We are a collective of hackers, technologists, creatives, and activists with roots in digital and physical communities throughout the world; principal among these being Bitshares, Steem, & Detroit, Michigan. Our vision can be read here; essentially, we want to start a revolutionary, grassroots digital economy movement. It's time for people to take back their lost independence, and this decentralized autonomous community has the tools with which we can empower them to do so.

Collectively, our crew has already introduced Steem, Graphene, and blockchain technology to hundreds of people, and we’re just getting started! We aspire to become an active witness in cooperation with the Steem community, and in support of our core goals:

1. To provide reliable infrastructure for Steem and other Graphene-based blockchain networks; e.g. helping to further develop and expand the witness toolset for maintaining operational infrastructure, providing price feeds, and acting as an oracle.

2. To build our team’s collective influence on the network and leverage that influence for greater works, such as bringing more people to the platform, and in support of our other core goals.

3. To create products and services that will support Steem and the overall Graphene ecosystem by maintaining a responsive product development pipeline.

4. To run educational workshops in our local communities that will onboard more users to Steem, and help to amplify its existing network effect.

5. To translate earned digital value into physical works as a testament to the power of distributed autonomous communities. We have ambitious goals, such as creating the first Steem-powered neighborhood in Detroit.

6. To create inspiring and engaging media, further expanding the many communities of which the Graphene ecosystem is comprised.

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Witness Server Specs

We have two witness nodes running in different availability regions to reduce the time to failover. We also have installed monitoring on all of our core nodes.

Witness nodes

• Dual core 2.3 GHz Intel Xeon® E5-2686 v4 (Broadwell) processors
• 8 GB RAM
• 60 GB SSD
• 450 Mbit/s unmetered bandwidth

Seed node

• steem.agoric.systems:2001
• 4 Dedicated x86 64 bit Cores
• 8 GB RAM
• 50 GB SSD
• 300 Mbit/s unmetered bandwidth

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The Agorians - (Who are we?)

@matt-a has been involved in the cryptocurrency space since Bitcoin’s inception and has decided to devote his life to Agoric Systems to ensure that as many human beings as possible can be educated on and liberated by cryptocurrency.

@robrigo is an adventurer and computerer. Closely following the Bitshares community since 2014, he has seen the light, and aspires to bring the crypto opportunity to everybody. In his free time, he likes to ride bikes and go hiking in remote wildernesses.

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@rahulyadav is a software engineer at Duo Security. He is also the dean of the Detroit Chapter of Awesome Foundation. His passion lies in building usable products. He likes to read books and cook.

@lovejoy is an explorer between the realms of blockchain technology and physical community. He is a multimedia professional with a diverse background spanning film production, visual arts, storytelling, sailing, and herbalism. His goal is the telling of stories which inspire, empower, and connect people throughout the world.

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@sensei is a digital nomad with a passion for discovery (both online and off). A generalist by nature, he specializes in helping businesses grow on the web via research, design, and development. You’ll find his heart resting at the intersection of art and technology.

@timothy-archer is a curious autodidact with an Internet connection and a propensity for all things aesthetic. He is Ingrained with a realistic but ultimately an optimistic outlook on the future and our ability to manifest change.

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@spurious-claims is an impact-driven community and economic developer who is determined to ensure access to and meaningful engagement on the Internet. Education, outreach, and hustling are the name of her game.

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Thank you for reading! Agoric Systems is committed for the long haul. We are battle tested, innovative, and adaptable! We hope that you will support our campaign for witness on this and other Graphene chains as we continue to work for the benefit of everyone in our growing community.

You can vote for our witness here by scrolling down to the bottom and entering the name "agoric.systems" in the VOTE field. Click here for a gif that walks through the process!

We’d love to hear from you in the comments below!

Onward!
The Agoric Team

Comments

[tommyinthesun]

How do i witness vote?

[rahulyadav]

1. Go to the witness page
2. Scroll all the way down until you see: "If you would like to vote for a witness outside of the top 50, enter the account name below to cast a vote."
3. Enter agoric.systems in the box.
4. Click on "Vote" :)

[tonytuba]

Just curious, how does Detroit work into this? As a Michigander, I'm all for the revival of Detroit regaining it's status as one of the top 5 cities in the country. I love all of your other tenants, but Detroit seemed to be dropped in there. How will crypto help the city ? Are the efforts more educational, more spreading the word to people who may not completely understand it or will you be looking to help neighborhoods directly?

Sorry for so many questions, but I want to see my hometown get back to where my parents remember it, in all it's glory. I think it's possible and I sure do hope you guys can help. Speaking of, how can i lend a hand? I actually work geographically close to @rahulyadav and would really love to help where i can. Let me know and keep up the good work!

[robrigo]

Hey Tony,

We want to go into communities and teach them how to take advantage of these awesome tools in order to empower themselves. This means doing things such as advocating for digital and financial literacy, running blogging workshops for newcomers to Steem, and explaining how digital assets work from a high level. We'd also like to translate digital value into physical works in order to showcase the fact that it's real money we're talking about, similar to the Steem Park initiative.

At the end of the day, it's like you said on Telegram, a "teach them to fish" approach that will hopefully spread like wildfire. :)

[nepd]

Way ahead of you... voted for @agoric.systems the moment you announced. From my interactions with @matt-a and @robrigo, I know the type of job you'll do. Excited to see what's in store for the future.

[robrigo]

Thanks for your show of support, @nepd!

[virtualgrowth]

Look forward to everything you guys will be doing! Great to see many familiar names supporting you guys as well!

[robrigo]

Thanks Virgrow, we can't wait to hit the ground running.

[fingersik]

All right. Your values and goals seem just to me! For now you have earned my 7th overall witness vote. I mostly like the effort to shove the blockchain into the real world and create a STEEM-GHETO!:D If only I were from US...ok no I’m happy I’m not from there but hell we could use similar ghetto in Czech! Wish you all the best guys and I hope that you will keep us updated!!

[kevinwong]

Cool team. Are your devs free? I've some ideas but definitely need good devs to consider taking them up xD. All the best anyway guys!

[robrigo]

Hey Kevin,

I'd love to know what you're thinking. Get at me on steemit.chat!

[funkit]

Finally a witness campaign to support. The key words:

"... further expanding the many communities of which the Graphene ecosystem is comprised."

gonna do it right away

[robrigo]

Thanks for your support, @funkit!

[funkit]

No problem.

[alexpmorris]

sounds great, and nice job getting it all up and running! Ya got my vote, and one of my witness votes too! :)

[matt-a]

Thanks for the support, Alex! It has been running for quite some time now, but we're just not getting around to the formalities. We've been busy quitting our careers and I've been personally defragging a bit from the tech world. Spending ~12 - ~16 hours a day on a computer under a lot of stress for extremely long periods of time merits a bit of a technological hiatus to maintain sanity haha. @robrigo is either an alien or a machine though, he's still going hard.

[cupid]

You guys look like you really got your act together!
I swear as God is my witness, I voted for your witness.

[yakuhi]

You got my vote @matt-a ;)

[matt-a]

Thanks so much! Well, you've definitely voted for a group of truly skilled and passionate people who is taking this extremely seriously. We've sacrificed our careers we've worked our lives to get in order to focus on this full time. We're down for the cause on a very serious level.

[patelincho]

Good job !

[matt-a]

Thanks, @patelincho! And thanks so much for sharing the info on our witness with the Whale Shares community! You rule.

[lenouarhakim]

I admire this ambitious project, thank you and I hope to be part of this project

[needmorefat]

Oh hi @robrigo & Agoric team! Still remember you from Bitsharestalk! Voted for you guys! Best of luck!

[robrigo]

Hello! I remember you too Abell! Thanks for your vote. :)

[needmorefat]

No problem, man. Just let me know if you need any help with graphic design work, social media ads and stuff like that. Can help a bit in my free time 👍

[epiphany]

OK I did it. :)

[zhiv]

Voted and resteemed. Here because of @matt-a. Glad to do whatever I can to support this effort.

[matt-a]

ZHIVKO!!! Why didn't you tell me you were here already, dude!?

[zhiv]

I've been trying to get the hang of it, so I am not a total noob :D

[deanliu]

Change the world please! :)

[agoric.systems]

We're going to give it our best shot!

[spurious-claims]

That's the goal. Help us get there!

[matt-a]

Well, you asked. So I guess we have to do it now, @deanliu!

[p0o]

"our crew has already introduced Steem, Graphene, and blockchain technology to hundreds of people" Is there any proof for that? And what was your contribution to Steem platform till now?

IMHO It's basically a money campaign unless you actually do something for steem and need the witness privilege for compensation.

[robrigo]

Hey @p0o,

I've personally brought all of these people to Steem: @ojaber, @geofftk, @jexblackmore, @businessrules, @snowmen88, @hiro14hiro, @spurious-claims, @timothy-archer, @sensei, @pryzmatic, @chrisczub, @matt-a, @kotturinn, @chernern, @rahulyadav, @kinnard, @treewalker @thread, @bkelly, and @slimysammy. Probably others that I've left out or forgotten.

I know that @lovejoy has been running Steem meetups in Minneapolis for some time now, and has had a considerable reach there.

@matt-a has been bringing in a lot of Appalachian folks, including @tommyinthesun, and @interpidthinker.

We are constantly evangelizing the platform, just last weekend I went out to a wealth management community group in a Detroit neighborhood called Jefferson Chalmers and explained to them what digital currency and STEEM is.

With napkin math I am almost certain that our reach has gone beyond 100. I've explained Steem to at least 40 people in just one setting (my previous workplace), and I've talked to many, many others about the opportunity. Not all of these translate into conversions into registered accounts, but hey, we're giving it a shot. I'm also going to be giving talks to introduce people to Steem and Graphene technology in the coming months, I've got two scheduled so far.

So to answer your question, I've been evangelizing Steem for a year now in my free time, and have just recently resigned from my full time position so I can focus full time on building products that will benefit the Steem ecosystem with our team pictured above. We will announce more about our first product in the coming weeks.

If you want to wait to see more until you vote for us (or consider doing so), that's your own choice. You're welcome to do as you please. :)

I hope this clears some things up for you!

[kwakuosei]

@p0o I'm another person that Rob's brought in, 1st shared w/ me in person and then reiterated diff. benefits online...he shares great stuff about Steem, Bitshares, and Graphene tech like they're his babies!

[robrigo]

Glad to see you here too, Kwaku!

[geofftk]

I am here based on the constant praise from @robrigo about this community. I think he is a huge advocate for steem

[matt-a]

We can't/won't stop.

[matt-a]

Currently on mobile but am now back in internet land (been in the realm of no service and internet also known as Canada the past several days).

I appreciate the direct, challenging question. To answer it, yes. I can't begin to fathom how much time we've all collectively sacrificed bringing people into the fold here as well as educated them on how this all works. The latter is far more challenging to do effectively than you can imagine, especially to a non-technical person. That's who we want more of, after all.

This is far from a "cash grab." Personally, this is emancipation, a revolution, and a thorough defeat of cyclical poverty that many people have no choice but to die in due to circumstance.

We're all in an extremely important and vital position at the moment. Not to grab it by the horns and give it hell would be beyond something on par with blasphemy.

As for people we've brought to support a number, yes we can back it up. When I'm off of mobile I'll rattle off a nice crop of humans for you to inspect and hopefully connect with as I'm sure they'd love to connect with you.

[jamani]

Given!

[patriot]

You've got my vote @agoric.systems

[robrigo]

Thanks! If you need help figuring out how to upvote a witness, I'm happy to explain. :)

[nepd]

@patriot is my son, so he knows whats up :)

[dinisanda]

Wow... i like your comment... @nepd

[patriot]

Thanks for the offer I just did though

[robrigo]

Great, many thanks! We've just added a link to a walkthrough gif in the OP as well, for those unfamiliar with witness voting.

[chernern]

Voted :)

[troglodactyl]

Excellent. I've voted for your witness.

[agoric.systems]

We greatly value your support for us.

[chuxlouis]

not bad though...i am still new at this and will very much love to know how the witness tag works please, anyone who will be kind enough to put me through please kindly do @chuxlouis..

[ch00fy]

Awsome team you guys are building each with different ideas and lifestyles! With you this epic platform will only grow! keep up the good work looking foward to seeing whats next. you have my vote!

[rahulyadav]

Thank you :)

[innuendo]

You got my vote.

[robrigo]

Thank you very much @innuendo!

[othmanesl]

your ideas are amazing hope you'll be able to rich your goals thanks a to of sharing and keep on posting ;)

[ahsaniftikhar]

Thanks for sharing such informative blog . Upvoted @agoric.systems

[tyler-fletcher]

Voted for your Steem and Peerplays witness, and would love the same in return!

My steem witness is "tyler-fletcher" and my Peerplays witness is "firecrab-witness"

Good luck!

[robrigo]

Returned the vote! Thanks Tyler.

[simonsayz]

Brilliant, love this!

[agoric.systems]

That's what we need in this world. More love!

[drakos]

Nice to have another witness. Although I'm curious, is that 8GB RAM sufficient for your nodes? 12GB is the recommended minimum nowadays.

[robrigo]

Hey @drakos, thanks for the support. We use a shared memory file, in that configuration the recommendation is more about allotting at least 12 GB of disc space. Plus we run our witness slimmed down as much as possible, with only the configurations needed to do consensus, which leaves the RAM footprint at about 4.7 GB.

[drakos]

Interesting. I wonder if that's enough to maintain the node's stability. I've set 12GB for the shared memory file, and my memory usage is 12GB out of the 16GB total! If your idea works and is stable, maybe I'll set up my seed on a 8GB VPS.

[rahulyadav]

We're planning to open-source our ansible playbook, the config we use, etc. So keep an eye out :)

[dinisanda]

I agree with you @robrigo and i learn more datail...

[ducky9605]

voted @agoric.systems ! The seven of you! Good luck!

[spurious-claims]

Double thanks!

[aung]

[marcelo26188]

good luck guys, best of luck!

[cryptopizza]

Good One,

[the-ego-is-you]

I like your style Agorians!

Best wishes, from a 'Cooperative Agorist'

[robrigo]

Thanks for your support @the-ego-is-you!

[rahulyadav]

Thank you!

[dwightjaden]

Im following you now. I see the big picture here and the future. I'll support and be a witness for the success agoric.systems.

[ssd213]

excellent work. I just voted. NIce to see the revival of Detroit again. Lets hope our Potus doesnt take the credit for it.

[borislavzlatanov]

You seem to have an engineering and a problem-solving perspective and I consider these extremely important for changing the world. Voted for you as a witness and I'm also following you.

[snowmen88]

You are my witness!

[cassillas5553]

hello i am new to this website less than a month .. This is a good artivcle i am impressed by you guys I wanna vote you up .. but dont know how ...!! ;-;

[natasmr]

Voted for you! Don't fail my trust!!!=))

[rahulyadav]

We won't. You can count on us. :)

[natasmr]

=))))

[agentsofmars]

I voted!

Good Luck

[missagora]

Wooosh! Way over my head, but hey if it's Agorists helping out Steemit then I'm all for it so you've got my little vote!

[kencode]

UPVOTED 100% !! :)

[robrigo]

Thanks Ken, your support means a lot!

[kencode]

You got it, love you guys :)

[janver06]

@spurious-claims, your the only rose among the thorns. :) upvoted!

[spurious-claims]

Thanks! You're the best!

[janver06]

Nope, you are the best. And I see that your team will be one of the steemit foundation ☺

Done going ahead and cast my vote for @agoric.systems

[shla-rafia]

Hi, I'm voting for you.

[robrigo]

Thanks for your support Martin!

[rtdcs]

Congratulations! I'm look forward to everything you are doing!

It's nice to see great names supporting as well!

How do i witness vote?

[rahulyadav]

Hey. To vote for us as witness you can follow the steps here: https://steemit.com/witness-category/@agoric.systems/witness-campaign-agoric-systems-kindly-asks-you-for-your-vote-to-become-witness#@rahulyadav/re-tommyinthesun-re-agoricsystems-witness-campaign-agoric-systems-kindly-asks-you-for-your-vote-to-become-witness-20170705t191747725z

Thanks for supporting us! :)

[brondon]

Great team I think, should I vote you? Yeah, you got mine...

[rudyrun]

Until today I haven't heard from you guys at all
What have you done for the small guys lately
I don't want information what you want to do
Just what you did lately some reference pls thx

[robrigo]

Hi @rudyrun,

Thanks for the question. We've been spreading the word about Steem and Graphene technology within our localized communities and bringing many people into the platform. This witness proposal represents us "upping our game" with respect to those efforts, as well as focusing on improving the software ecosystem of Steem and Graphene. We haven't announced our development plans yet, however that will come soon!

[rudyrun]

Ok where do I sign

[johndarcy1994]

Looks like a super geek team :) Jk. Very nice credentials and they will be a great contributor in steemit. :) voted as witness done :)

[sarfraz]

You spent a great time in writing this article or blog pot and i am sure it going to help alot of people as your information is very precise and you presented it with evidences, hope this will help alot of people like me to make decision which will ultimately benefit us in either way. you are really doing a great effort for the society.

[ebarakos]

I met @robrigo, @lovejoy and @spurious-claims at Steemfest 2. They are very passionate and experienced people, they know for sure what they are doing. I just voted agoric.systems for witness. Keep up the good work guys!