I wrote a bit about that in my Steem Pressure series, it's just a Steem node, that runs with certain settings and plugins that allows to reply to full range of API queries. Thing is that some plugins, especially tags and follow, require much more resources than consensus (needed for a regular node). Currently account history plugin, which was also a big deal, is already moved to much more robust RocksDB solution.
Please note, that to provide decent API service, it's not enough to run just one server with steemd.
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Thank you very much @gtg .I just read 4 episodes. Very clear.
So, if anyone can have a node, why do I need to be Witness or what difference does a Witness have with any other user?
By the way, this is you? : @"gandalfthewhite"
No, it's just another user.
You don't need to be a witness. Witnesses sign blocks with their witness nodes, they keep the network running.
API nodes are needed by developers, services, apps, and their users. API endpoints don't really need to run steemd. It might be hivemind, sbds, or some other microservices.