Bitcoin Steem Similarities?
I don't know if I asked you, but does Steem allow for anybody who runs Steem on their computers, servers, etc, to be a witness, technically speaking, similar to how anybody who is mining Bitcoin is technically a miner?
Witnesses vs Miners
I know Steem has the top 20 witnesses, but is the 21st witness still a witness? Are there limits to how many witnesses there can be? Does a witness have to be voted for in order to be a witness?
Peer to Peer (P2P)
I would prefer that Steem allows people to mine Steem like people mine Bitcoin or to be Steem witnesses similar to how IPFS and Bit Torrent works. I don't know if Steem allows for this already or not but that is what I would prefer, that anybody can run Steem to help decentralize Steem, to help backup the data running on Steem as the more the computers the better.
Steem used to be mined long before I joined. There are witness "producer" rewards, but I am not sure how they function or. see for example https://steemd.com/@yabapmatt
It also appears that witnesses not in the top 20 can still get producer rewards. see https://steemd.com/@klye
I've never set up a witness node. I hear they are hungry for RAM-and ideally you need hardware that is probably better than what is in your typical budget home pc [not that I shopped in years]. But I would suppose that anyone who has the money for such a system, a good enough internet speed, and knows how to use or is able to learn how to use unix/linux could run a witness node. There are cost associated with running a witness node. Ignoring any labor costs they include: the financing of the machine; the electricity to run it or for cooling, and; maybe a higher monthly bill for internet. This may not be profitable nor possible for everyone.
People get to vote for witnesses, and the rank is based upon the sp of those votes. The old saying, "building a better mouse trap isn't enough" is true. Steem is a better platform than tron, but tron won in the marketing department. To be a top 20 witness doesn't mean going out and making a custom made system by itself, but marketing why you should be voted on as a witness....particularly to the major stake holders.
Ubuntu:
I use Ubuntu and it is not hard. Plus, fiber optic Internet is faster than 5G. Long story short, people could do a lot more if they simply built or customized their computers.
Customizing
I can assemble tower desktops and I can say that it is possible do a lot via things like Bit Torrent, IPFS, etc. I would encourage Steem and other social network blockchains, etc, to let people seed Steem either completely or partly.
Completely or Partly
That is how Bit Torrent works. They let you decide which videos, photos, files, etc, you want to download. Plus, they let you seed, AKA upload or distribute it back to others, that is peer to peer (P2P). In other words, they should give people the option to simply share and not share however much they want.
Share The Load
That would let people with smaller computers, devices, to at least help share the load if they want to. It should not be all or nothing but customizable to the individuals.
Compensated Adequately
And each individual should be compensated and paid for seeding, for helping, for sharing. If Steem does not do this, assuming they aren't, then they'll fall behind and competitors will rise above. Steem should consider these things if they're not already.