Witness Update

As we move into the HF we're preparing our servers and hardware for a clean transition, made possible by our fellow decentralized teammates on the witness and development front. The GuiltyParties witness is signaling the 1.24.2 HF and has been for some time now to signify our commitment to the HF and its changes and our confidence in it.

There is a lot of work that goes into getting all the servers set up and re-set up to support all the projects that we're a part of or manage. We're constantly juggling costs vs requirements to optimize our hardware use. I can't list all of the servers here in the post as it'll be an extensive list that's always changing in terms of specs.

Update on General Contributions to Hive

Now before I get into these I have to say that everything that's accomplished isn't a one-man-show and a lot of team-working went into it. These are the projects where I took the lead, not for any purpose except for supporting the Hive ecosystem and the success of Hive, and for that reason can get this update out to you. And while we're on this note, there's nothing here that requires any special opportunity in particular that anyone else can't tackle. If you see a need or chance to support Hive then go for it. That's the basic concept behind decentralization.

Here's a key point that in light of the HF didn't make it into it's own post anywhere yet and doesn't really fit here but is of interest to anyone reading this. The final version of the Hive Whitepaper has been released and is available on the hive.io website as well as at the repository. Read it here: https://hive.io/whitepaper.pdf Credits for editing/contributing will be done after the HF simply because I don't have the time to get through them now. That being said, I'll do my best to credit everyone in the repository. For obvious reasons, no names will be added to the Whitepaper itself in any form aside from "Decentralized Hive Ecosystem" as the author.

Collaboration is the name of the game moving forward. You probably saw the announcement from @hiveio and if you haven't then I suggest you follow that account and keep an eye on it. Going to keep working with the Ark/MarketSquare team to make sure they are able to integrate their services with Hive without undue problems or delays. We're in regular communication as you likely noticed by now with the coordinated announcements. The timeframe for this is after the dust settles on the HF and the required resources and libraries are all stable and updated (which most are already). This is a key deliverable for myself personally and so far I can tell you that it's been a solid exchange of ideas.

There's also outreach work going on in respect to other potential bridging opportunities for Hive with the goal of expanding Hive's utility and its general significance on the global stage. Decentralization means we're working globally and aren't based in any one geographical location. It's great in principle but it also translates to a lot more competition and a bar that can be set as high as the greatest minds on the planet can set it. That just makes things a whole lot more interesting and we're hoping that you'll see more milestones reached in these last few months of a very eventful 2020.

Communication support for Hive in regards to managing the chat services and some Hive social media outlets will continue. They do take a lot of time even if you don't see me in active conversations and it's a general team effort. We have a lot of great people all contributing to the management and organization. I know many send their feedback to me already and I got no problem with that, keep sending it over and even if I don't action something, doesn't mean I forget about your suggestion. Technical ideas will take some time but we'll see them realized in the future. And if you end up hearing from me on some matter relating coordination or chats, don't take it too personally, it's just a part of my undertaken role here. You being set up for success is Hive being set up for success.

Now one thing that I do need to personally focus on is rebuilding the Skills Matrix that was started over a year ago and updating the Developer Job Board. That's planned for the near term immediately after the HF. The tools already exist, the data needs to be updated since we've had a lot of great new Hive users come forward since inception this spring. Watch this blog for an announcement to this regard and in the meantime, if you're someone with valuable skills (this is obviously subjective) then go ahead and think on whether you want to put your name out there for the benefit of Hive.

I don't want to go too deep into personal and major projects here except to say that as a team at GuiltyParties remain committed to Hivewatchers, BRO and FullAlt as per normal. These are all very unique and have nothing to do with each other but we will see some great continual progress as normal as all these have some excellent people there. Tools like Spaminator, HiveBlue and MyHive will get their required updates and keep running and supporting the Hive ecosystem as usual.

Challenges

To end on challenges here, the biggest is obviously time. Everything adds up and this isn't something that we can solve with money because in the end of the day, there are only so many hours and more can't be bought. Time will always remain the greatest challenge.

The other challenge is obviously decentralization and no amount of experience can prepare one for the curve balls we've seen here on Hive that come with the element of monetization. But that's no deterrent as the goal is for Hive to prosper and take its rightful place in blockchain history as the one ecosystem that took on massive obstacles and overcame them. And if we can help it get there, whatever that takes, then it's all worth it in the end.