Witnesses on the Hive blockchain are in a constant race to land in the Top 20 as that's where the real action happens! Being a consensus witness isn’t just a badge of honor, it's a responsibility. Their scope is to keep the blockchain secure, validate transactions, and ensure everything runs smoothly. It’s like being the referee and the coach in the big game of decentralized networks. And of course also that's where the honey is, rewards are more abundant and main decisions about the Hive blockchain and DHF funding are made.
As I am looking at it from the sidelines, I believe that the competition is fierce and the Splinterlands drama about DHF funding on their proposal proved that! Every day, it's like a blockchain Olympics, with witnesses earning more trust, climbing up the ladder and becoming more influential. They upgrade validation nodes with new improvements, communicate with the community about their decisions (although it could be more transparently), set the APR for HBD stablecoin in the Savings and do their own thing to get an edge. But at the end of the day, it's not just about winning. It’s about keeping Hive strong, secure, and vibrant. Though, let’s be honest, landing in the Top 20 does come with some serious bragging rights!
With this post, I intend to present on a monthly basis the Top 20 Witnesses on the Hive blockchain and any movements to it. It is quite important to see whom the Hive community has entrusted with the big decisions and if it is the case make adjustment, upvote other witnesses and so on. So, in August 2024, the list of the Consensus Witnesses (Top 20) stays like this.
Top 20 Witnesses
| Rank | Witness | Votes(MHP) | HBD APR(15%) | Hive Price Feed | Last Price Update | Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | @arcange | 85.94M HP | 20% | 0.184 $ | 1 hours, 2 minutes, 30 seconds | 1.27.6 |
| 2 | @stoodkev | 84.35M HP | 20% | 0.183 $ | 50 minutes, 45 seconds | 1.27.6 |
| 3 | @steempeak | 81.73M HP | 15% | 0.183 $ | 3 hours, 13 minutes, 15 seconds | 1.27.3 |
| 4 | @gtg | 81.70M HP | 10% | 0.183 $ | 43 minutes, 39 seconds | 1.27.6 |
| 5 | @good-karma | 81.53M HP | 20% | 0.183 $ | 1 hours, 52 minutes, 12 seconds | 1.27.3 |
| 6 | @blocktrades | 81.25M HP | 12% | 0.184 $ | 31 minutes, 33 seconds | 1.27.6 |
| 7 | @ausbitbank | 79.48M HP | 15% | 0.180 $ | 9 hours, 18 minutes, 54 seconds | 1.27.4 |
| 8 | @ocd-witness | 75.46M HP | 15% | 0.184 $ | 31 minutes, 15 seconds | 1.27.3 |
| 9 | @quochuy | 75.33M HP | 20% | 0.182 $ | 1 hours, 34 minutes, 45 seconds | 1.27.3 |
| 10 | @emrebeyler | 75.10M HP | 15% | 0.184 $ | 13 minutes, 12 seconds | 1.27.3 |
| 11 | @deathwing | 74.09M HP | 15% | 0.183 $ | 31 minutes, 39 seconds | 1.27.4 |
| 12 | @yabapmatt | 74.09M HP | 20% | 0.183 $ | 26 minutes, 18 seconds | 1.27.5 |
| 13 | @roelandp | 74.06M HP | 10% | 0.183 $ | 2 hours, 49 minutes, 42 seconds | 1.27.6 |
| 14 | @guiltyparties | 72.90M HP | 19% | 0.182 $ | 13 minutes, 15 seconds | 1.27.3 |
| 15 | @therealwolf | 72.85M HP | 12% | 0.183 $ | 31 minutes, 15 seconds | 1.27.0 |
| 16 | @themarkymark | 72.74M HP | 15% | 0.183 $ | 30 minutes, 3 seconds | 1.27.5 |
| 17 | @abit | 71.24M HP | 7% | 0.181 $ | 5 hours, 25 minutes, 18 seconds | 1.27.6 |
| 18 | @threespeak | 69.76M HP | 9% | 0.183 $ | 54 minutes, 39 seconds | 1.27.3 |
| 19 | @pharesim | 69.62M HP | 20% | 0.183 $ | 22 minutes, 3 seconds | 1.27.5 |
| 20 | @smooth.witness | 69.24M HP | 15% | 0.184 $ | 51 minutes, 54 seconds | 1.27.3 |
Top 3 Contenders
Outside of the Top 20 Consensus Witnesses on the Hive blockchain are the following contenders. Very close to entering the Top 20, but not there yet.
| Rank | Witness | Votes(MHP) | HBD APR(15%) | Hive Price Feed | Last Price Update | Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | @engrave | 68.96M HP | 20% | 0.183 $ | 46 minutes, 3 seconds | 1.27.6 |
| 22 | @mahdiyari | 68.77M HP | 15% | 0.183 $ | 3 hours, 4 minutes, 18 seconds | 1.27.6 |
| 23 | @howo | 59.04M HP | 15% | 0.183 $ | 1 hours, 1 minutes, 3 seconds | 1.27.6 |
The battle for Top 20 Witnesses on the Hive blockchain continues and we shall see if next month we will have any new entries or still the current ones will hold the crown. And don't forget to cast your upvotes to entrusted Witnesses. You have 30 upvotes that you can spread around to those representing your interest and which you consider are supporting, helping or even developing on this amazing blockchain.
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
Thanks for sharing this but what does it take to be a witness?
witnesses serve the role of validating signatures and timestamping transactions by including them in blocks. A block is any group of transactions (posts, votes, transfers, etc) that update the state of the database.
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 be active! Some contribute to core repositories. Some fund the development of other apps and infrastructure projects.
Every round of block production begins with the shuffling of 21 witnesses: the top 20 witnesses (by vote), plus one backup 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.
You can see the witness list here
You can see the live block production here
By voting for a witness, YOU choose which ones you trust to ensure the security of the blockchain.
Great explanation, couldn't have said it better.
Thank you
So my 918HP aren't getting me close anytime soon 🤣
There is no comparison with our accounts, a witness has also "upvoted" HP which puts it in a top that ensures a slot in validation transactions. Higher MHP, higher number of transactions to validate, higher rewards for that.
Those HP numbers represent the amount of VESTed shares (HP) that stakeholders hold, which determines the strength of their governance votes in supporting the witnesses. So that 918 of yours is voting for me and three other wintesses who commented on this post. And that's because you have proxy set to
@keychainwhich has proxy set to@stoodkev, who happen to vote for us. Also, because you effectively support 30 witnesses, it's actually 918HP for each of them, that means 27540HP worth of votes. That's quite a number, isn't it? :-)I need to up my game.
We are not witnesses but just participants to the Hive economy, to be a witness you need to run a validator node software.
Although the “competition” may seem fierce at times, I would not use the term “battle.” Getting into the top 20 is all about having the trust of the community members, not about fighting against others. Usually, this is done through positive actions like work for Hive, commitment, reliability, ... which do not seem to be the prerogative of a battle.
You are right, I just wanted to bring some gamification also to the witnesses space. I will think maybe to a better naming for the witnesses status, which I intend to track it on a monthly basis.
I was thinking of become a whale but seeing some people with millions of HP is wanting me to give up😅
Just do it!
Whales don't have anything to do with witnesses. To be a witness you need to run a validator node software and validate blocks on Hive blockchain. The number of those is somehow direct proportional with your ranking.
Don't give up! I started on Hive being a red fish, like most of us. Maybe reading this post will encourage you.
It's usually a bit less dynamic than nowadays.
It is indeed, but I think the latest Splinterlands drama with their DHF proposal made some waves amongst the witnesses as well. It opened the eyes for some users and projects from here that holding HP can be quite important when it comes to needed funded.
Yes, and that's a good thing!