From steemd.com
On the Steem blockchain, witnesses serve a role of validating signatures and timestamping transactions by including them in blocks. A block is any group of transactions (posts, votes, transfers, etc) which update the state of the database. Each time a witness produces a block, they are paid for their service. If a witness fails to produce a block, then they are not paid, and may even be voted out.
Witnesses are generally expected to manage a reliable block producing node, implement a failover system, maintain a public seed node, tune blockchain operating parameters, publish correct price feeds, author/discuss improvement proposals, review code changes, and to be active. Some contribute to core repositories such as steemd. Some fund the development of other apps and infrastructure projects. Top-20 witness pay is $7,000 per month (approximately) based on the current feed price.
Every round of block production begins with the shuffling of 21 witnesses: the top 20 witnesses (by vote), plus one randomly-selected standby witness. Each is given a turn to produce a single block at a fixed rate of one block every 3 seconds. If a witness does not produce a block in their time slot, then that time slot is skipped, and the next witness produces the next block.
That's ~4.5 times more than my account is worth. It's also about 5 times less than one years salary in Sweden... It's sad and disappointing that so many witnesses are collecting an insane amount of rewards for doing literally nothing... And there's nothing we can do about it.
$7000 is not a lot. Unless you are a socialist/communist. People in big roles should be paid more. "insane amount" have some perspective. This is not that much above a regular salary. They are being witnesses they are doing stuff.
Many are TEAMS. For most it is a full time job!
I know a Top 20 team member, of 2 people, and after all the expenses and the 50-50 split, it is not a lot of cash. PLUS, this particular witness is putting it all into powering up and not using any to live on. It's a lot less than one might think!
I have no problem with people earning money. I don't mind $7000 salaries either, as long as they're worth it. And no, I don't think that all those witnesses are worth that amount. Some of them? Sure. All of them? No way.
The average salary in Sweden is $3746 per month. That's my perspective.
Average in Croatia is 600 USD.I must move to Sweden...
Maybe ... but also everyday life is much more expensive there ... :)
Top 20 makes $7k/month, and yes they are ALL worth it. They all do the max # of blocks, they earn it all. Server Costs are around $700/month (or more!) so 10% (or more) of the pay they receive. Now top 50 actually make a "profit" by most people's measure, and it takes at least top 80 (give or take) to "break even" and pay for your server costs. However, a lower slot has less hardware needs. At these steem prices, no one is getting rich. Think of steem witnesses as MINERS. They deserve to make a profit. If TPTB would deem that the top 100 all got the same # of block producing opportunities, lower hardware costs and a more spread out payout would make it easier on everyone. But they set it up for top 20. I project that in the future, if steem rises to around $10, that we will have many more blocks to spread around. I would love to see a distribution chart among the witnesses if our traffic rises by a factor of 10x or more. You know ppl will be clamoring to join SteemPeak and similar UI's...
I totally understand your point, but I still disagree. There are witnesses in the top 20 that I'd rather see at a different position. I know a handful of witnesses I'd rather put in the top 20 than some of the existing witnesses.
FTG for instance, belongs in the top 20 without a doubt, but that's just my opinion.
In my mind, that is a different point entirely, but I agree with that. Here's a couple of points:
There is a learning curve and it's for a good reason, one can learn the hardware and software on an "As Needed Basis" because pretty much until you get like top 50 it's not very hardware intensive. I'm backing FTG as well, we have a good common friend that speaks highly of him...
FTG may be a good Top20 but I know our witness is capable, 35 years in IT and also a crack developer, hard to beat combo. On the 0.20.4 patch, she was activated before 80% of the top 20 and running smoothly. I have one of the top blockchain people in Steem on my TEEM
(lol) But we have to PROVE IT. Stay Tuned!
😎
$7000 is nearly double the average wage and is incorrect
top witness gets 8500 steem a month
top 20 witness gets 7500 steem a month
also the average price of steem the last year is over $2.5 so its more like $16k a month top witnesses earned
in january alone average price was $4 so for january top witness earned $32k
... sigh , you know it's very unbecoming, the old-american idea of socialism dating back to the cold war , but i dont wanna get into that
$7000 is a WHOLE LOT to sit on your ass and rake in the money , its decent pay if you're fulltime at it working for a community of thousands (i dont think theres actually a million people here despite the number of accounts) , if you do that , like FULL-time then its probably like , "not bad" since you're doing what you like, but if , like a lot of what i see, i dont notice much b/c i dont walk upthere is just raking it in because you happened to come into the game with money, you set up a node, did some campaigning, like basically spent some advertising money and now just live it up , that makes it a WHOLE lot
but i didnt come here to get into politics, i just made a request @brandonfrye , where i got the mention for @fulltimegeek here
its here :
https://steemit.com/fulltimegeek/@rudyardcatling/re-brandonfrye-vote-fulltimegeek-for-witness-20180930t205446827z
i would like a total explanation, numbers, formulas, everything, if not in language i can understand then maybe even in language people who, unlike me, arent past "hello world" level yet
i would love that very much, so anyone who can provide that ?
can get my 0.03cent vote, lol :)
please keep in mind here im not interested in a row on communism and capitalism, that gets me nothing but a waste of time , i know all the opinions on the matter and they dont matter to me, the point here im trying to make is 7000 is more than i get in a year, a lot more soon, so for sitting on the same ass that's a lot, now the witnesses doing it right or doing MORE, like @yabapmatt i guess, got steembottracker, gets advertising money, wrote most of the bots (as i hear) while most people using them are just capable of using github clones AND have the money to operate it, AND got steemmonsters going on at the moment, thats gonna be a lot more than 7k a month PLUS the i dont know how many dollar click, but thats working for it :)
but i just came here to request posts explaining the numbers in the current state of the network, clearly, consisely and preferably with formulas i can use too :)
thanks
i think you mean more
average salary in sweden is $2500 a month
checkinprice.com/average-and-minimum-salary-in-stockholm-sweden/
Thanks for the info!
Ive always been curious as to what it entails to be a witness. Are witnesses selected purely on votes or does geography and infrastructure also play a role?
Thank you again for your great wealth of knowledge that you share with us!
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All VOTES. So a new witness (like my team) have to make it up with reliability, PR and a good record. New D-Apps and services help a lot too, and get your users of the apps to vote for you. Hitting the radio/podcasts is a great way to meet people and find votes, as well. It's a huge PR deal, but you must have the cajones to back it up ;-) My partner has 35 years IT and programming experience, and she was the 5th Witness to have our server up and running on either v20.4 or v20.5, all the rest were in the top 22 witnesses. She is a Top 20 Witness in her capabilities, for sure ;)
yup, that's the one I was talking about