The most important votes we make on Steem are for witnesses because every witness vote lasts indefinitely and witnesses are essentially the trusted servants and leaders of our community! The best solution I know of for witness voting is to find one user we trust to make all our votes for us and then set that user as a proxy at https://steemit.com/~witnesses. Our alternative is participation in a challenging witness voting process involving making up to 30 individual votes which most of us are understandably refusing to participate in!
Does Witness Voting Really Matter? Having a say in who the top witnesses are is the #1 factor we control in building and guiding our future together here on Steem! Let me explain ...
Witness Perks!
- Each witness in the top 20 earns 250 Steem Power a day equal to 90,000+ Steem Power a year which is worth about $110,000 today. Witnesses ranked 21 to 50 earn from about 10 to 50 Steem Power a day equal to $5,000 to $20,000 a year in earnings. Our votes when placed on some witnesses can produce and maintain full time equivalent employees for us that serve here every day and do a lot to build our community while on others they will result in little or no return.
- While authors can be downvoted on individual posts and even effectively silenced with earnings dropped to $0 by making an enemy with the wrong whale or community, witness rewards cannot be downvoted or reduced from disagreement.
- Steemit Inc often collaborates directly with witnesses for feedback and for help with ongoing projects.
- In each new hardfork, witnesses in the top 20 decide whether to accept or reject the update meaning witnesses have veto power on any update released either through refusing to update or neglecting to make an update in a timely fashion.
- Witnesses maintain the servers that literally are producing our blockchain in real time meaning that witnesses not closely monitoring servers and fixing errors can lead to a significantly reduced user experience from missed blocks. This reduced user experience can come in laggy upvotes at a minimum or at worst allow for a hacker to bring our blockchain production to a halt.
Witness Voting Basics and Challenges!
- Every Steem account has the ability to vote for up to 30 witnesses at https://steemit.com/~witnesses.
- Each Steem account also can set a proxy to allow another user to make all witness votes on their behalf at https://steemit.com/~witnesses.
- According to witness @lukestoke's most recent report, current participation in witness voting is very low with only about 15,000 accounts out of over 387,000 making even one vote equal to about 3.6% participation. By comparison, participation in the US presidential race is about 10 times as high.
- Witness votes are weighted meaning the more Steem Power we have, the more our vote counts. Having 10 times as much Steem Power as another user means a 10 times stronger vote.
- Out of the few hundred accounts with over $50,000 in Steem Power, only about 22% are making any votes for witness meaning the majority of Steem Power is not participating AT ALL in the witness voting process.
- Out of the top 25 accounts worth at least $700,000, most including the founder and CEO of Steemit Inc @ned, are not making any votes for witness while only @roadscape, @freedom via @pumpkin proxy and @thejohalfiles are actually using all 30 votes.
- The majority of active witness voters are not using all 30 witness voting spots meaning that if participation by amount of votes is multiplied by amount of users voting, our total witness voting participation by amount of votes and users voting is near 0% when not accounting for Steem Power. When we consider Steem Power, no witness has more than 18% approval today which most of that being from a few large votes.
- Maintaining witness votes is difficult because new witnesses come online every week and every month existing witnesses go offline. The first month on Steemit, I ignored almost anything involving the word witness and figured it was too technical for me to get involved with. I made no witness votes my first month or so.
- Becoming a new witness is challenging because getting enough votes to participate is nearly impossible when combining everything we talked about on this page.
- After making the effort to vote, many users never want to go through the hassle again and often fail to update votes for months.
- Fortunately many of those with the largest votes such as @freedom and @clayop and @roadscape are consistently updating witness votes giving newer witnesses posting updates a chance to rise up significantly in the rankings with just one of their votes!
A Simple Solution: Set a Proxy!
- For 99% of users on Steem, the witness voting process is way too much and we see clear proof of this by the current levels of participation. With most not even choosing one witness and almost none choosing all 30, fortunately we have an alternative to DIY.
- Setting a proxy at https://steemit.com/~witnesses is absolutely the best option to fully participate in voting for witnesses with the least amount of effort.
- Using the set proxy option at https://steemit.com/~witnesses allows another account to make all the witness votes on behalf of the user choosing the proxy.
- For example, if you set jerrybanfield as a proxy, you will continuously vote for all the witnesses I do. @craig-grant set me as a proxy yesterday which got me incredibly hyped to write more about this and to take a deeper look at who I am voting for!
- Setting a proxy is a lot of trust because the user we proxy has a responsibility to make our votes count and represent our interests as the Steem world turns.
- The proxy can be changed at any time for any reason including being removed to allow for individual voting or changed to another user making flexibility instant.
Who to Choose as a Proxy?
First, it will help to define what an ideal proxy might look like to help us choose a user we trust to make all our votes or to replace the user we are using now as a proxy to find a better one!
An ideal proxy does all of the following:
- Checks witness votes at a minimum of once a week and preferably daily to see if witnesses are online, how many blocks missed, new updates, etc.
- Places votes where THEY DO THE MOST GOOD FOR STEEM including voting for active witnesses contributing the most and helping new witnesses get started.
- Was, is, or is considering becoming an active witness OR has a way of keeping closely in touch with the witness community including discord, steemit.chat, witness posts, etc.
- Has a significant investment in Steem Power, curation, app development, and/or posting.
- Publicly shares votes on a regular basis including which witnesses are voting for and what systems are responsible for these votes. I do this in my witness updates each week.
How I Choose Witness Votes?
The primary factor driving my witness votes is asking
Where will my vote for a witness do the most good?
Asking this today just led me to change up several of my votes because I can see they were not doing as much good before. Here are a few ways I see what good my votes are doing.
- Am I receiving a vote back? A symbiotic relationship tends to reflect the greatest impact we are having in life. Most of our lives are set up to enable ongoing relationships with give and take from our families to our jobs and service. When a witness I am voting for is also voting for me, the odds are that both of our votes are greatly appreciated and doing a lot of good.
- How much of a difference does my vote make? When I vote for a top 20 witness that has a secure position to the point where my vote becomes irrelevant, how much good is that doing compared to giving that vote to a witness further down that might be highly motivated by my vote to keep serving as a witness? I just recently removed votes for a few top 10 witnesses to place these votes on witnesses that are getting started and working to move up because none of my votes in the top 10 are having an impact on how many blocks those witnesses get while my votes towards the bottom make a huge difference.
- What number of contributions has the witness made recently? Our votes when placed on those we see giving the most can help us get back the highest return on our investment here.
- Which technical details are in line with a "good witness" such as current version, missed blocks, server specs, etc. We need backup witnesses that are prepared in case of an emergency to keep our network up and running through unexpected good, bad, and ugly. I am not doing any favors voting for a backup witnesses renting ultra cheap servers that would be unable to handle a top 20 block production load at a moment's notice. If a witness is consistently not upgrading within a few weeks or a month of a new release, my votes move to witnesses running the newest version.
I am transparent about my votes because this to me is one of the most critical conditions to set a proxy. In setting a proxy, I would want to know what is driving the voting decisions that I am looking at being a part of.
Ready to Set a Proxy?
Would you please consider setting setting me as a proxy because you will enjoy not worrying about witness votes any more and you can count on me to continue doing all of what I just listed above?
If you would rather use another person as a proxy, my choice would be @roadscape or @clayop or @pumpkin because each is keeping witness votes updated and making all 30 votes. If you would like to do the work to be a proxy for Steem and offer voters more choices, would you post in the comments here because then I will include you as alternate choices for proxy when I mention setting a proxy?
Love,
Jerry Banfield
If you're reading this and want to support Jerry but have my as your witness proxy, as of this comment, I'm also voting for Jerry.
Luke thank you very much for voting for me as a witness today especially with having @tombstone having set you as a proxy!
Keep up the great work promoting Steemit and being a good actor here in the community. :)
I voted you as a proxy jerrybanfiel
Rock On rock On.. thank you for sharing
You're welcome Marco thank you for noticing! Would you consider adding me to your witness votes at https://steemit.com/~witnesses because you have 29 votes remaining?
yah
Well since you were the reason i've heard about steemit for the fiest time , you've been on my peoxy since day 1 @
Me too.
@xoni thank you very much for setting me as your proxy at https://steemit.com/~witnesses and trusting me to make your witness votes for you! I always value your suggestions on my votes in each witness update for who to add and remove!
Jerry, is there a willingness among the witnesses to lower the inflation rate of STEEM? Has this been debated anywhere that you could point me to?
If you are my proxy - am I still voting for you, Jerry? Can you vote for yourself?
I've voted for about 10 witnesses in the 4 months I've been here - of course you are one of those people. Most likely you are the first I voted for since i read your posts most days and you dragged me in here with your enthusiasm.
I vote for:
For as much time as I spend here and how much I want to vote for witnesses this says a lot that I can find so few. Maybe my list of votes will tell you who mingles down here with the little minnows.
I am very much thinking of turning this over to you as proxy and asking my son to do the same. He's only here a little bit and I'm sure witness voting has not even occurred to him.
One less steemit task is a good thing! But I want to make sure I would still be voting for you.
Sharon thank you for voting for me as a witness at https://steemit.com/~witnesses and answering a question here so completely as to the importance of participating in witness voting! Yes with me as a proxy you are also casting a vote for me!
You're welcome Jerry. You do so much for us and honestly I do not know how you fit the witness part in, but I am very glad to support you anyway I can.
This would be great, especially this:
You @jerrybanfield is the first witness that I voted for due to your continually providing tutorials for the steemit community and doing great things for the steemit platform.
I am also voting for @austbitbank and @xeldal for noticing my posts and voting it if they like it (I think they have me on auto vote because they also take off their vote if they saw and did not like my post which is very fair).
Others like @gtg I voted because he does provide feedback when asked a question regarding the steemit platform.
I think I still have 23 votes to spare but my main witnesses will be the four mentioned above (@jerrybanfield, @ausbitbank, @xeldal and @gtg).
You are right the unused votes are a waste and should be utilized to be given to the deserving witnesses.
Is it too much to ask if you will be my proxy and still keep the 4 witnesses mentioned above then you can pick the rest?
It would be great but if not, it's all good too.
@webcoop thank you very much for explaining how you started with your witness votes and have went forward! I am voting for myself along with @ausbitbank and @xeldal now. I had been voting for @gtg vote months for the same reasons you listed but I recently removed the vote because my vote does more good on newer and lower ranked witnesses. For @gtg, he gets the same 250 or so Steem Power a day with or without my vote because he is in the top 20 witnesses and has a lot more votes than needed. In other words, with his position secure it makes sense to vote for other witnesses that can get their first block or a couple more blocks a day. If @gtg slides down in the top 20, I will make a vote for him again to help maintain the position.
Thank you very much @jerrybanfield, I am with you regarding @gtg. Setting you as my proxy now. Thank you very much
@webcoop thank you very much for setting me as your proxy! I value your feedback on the votes I make especially in the witness update posts!
Nice
i voted u first then i set u as my proxy
pls upvote this post and the rest of mine
@kettleyer thank you very much for setting me as your proxy at https://steemit.com/~witnesses !
JERRY I AM ALSO A YOUTUBE SUBSCRIBER SO PLS FOLLOW ME AND UPVOTE AT LEAST $1 OF MY POST
Great post Jerry i just writing an article about inactive witnesses.
I'm a fresh witness from 2-3 days and already give my vote for you a couple of months ago, also i check if my voted witnesses keep the servers updated and is still active.
As new witness is very hard to get this big votes but i like the challenge.
I get votes every day and this is still not enough to make it in top 100.
Too many inactive witnesses deserve to be replaced but as you say users don't know too much about this process. Thank you for your clarification. If you want it you can give me an approval ( of course ).
Keep it up @jerrybanfield
I think the witness system is severely flawed, I am spending 160 dollars a month with digital ocean but I dont have the time to promote myself, even though I am contributing by having my witness server up and running.
I think your arguments are not grounded. This is a normal working system.
Getting the initial votes is challenging especially if doing Steem part time! Posting witness updates helps a lot and taking on at least one big ongoing project to grow Steem!
Hi @jerrybanfield - Would you please check out my questions below to help me learn? Firstly, I do appreciate all of your efforts to educate us and spread the word about witnesses and voter engagement.
If you're regularly asking us to vote for you as a witness, and now for us to trust your judgment to vote as OUR proxy, could you please expand on your ideas about what your vision of your role as a witness in the future would be?
Will a minnow every realistically become a witness, or is it first come first serve to those who have the most clout and influence during this setup time?
As top witnesses will be approached for feedback on the platform's future, will witnesses seek input from those who voted for them, or will they provide input independently?
What characteristics would you look for in other witnesses you're asking us to let you pick for us?
My instinct for this process is that it's a bit of a popularity contest for some who aren't doing as much legwork to earn votes, but I'm very open-minded to your feedback to help me understand this more, and likely the same for many in the community who are relatively new to this.
250SP a day would surely be nice as its value rises. Will it always be that figure or will is reduce in scale as market value rises?
Thank you very much.
Matt thank you for asking such inspired questions!
While it is a bit of a popularity contest, it also comes down to the contribution each of us make. If we seek to serve our community here as the primary value, I think a lot of great witness potential is there for anyone. I believe as the price of Steem rises, the witness rewards may be changed to a slightly smaller amount and automatic scaling down is already in place.
Thanks for taking the time to respond. Thanks even more for putting your thoughts into action with your following proactive blog post with a commitment to transparently reinvest 80% of your future top 20 witness rewards into Steemit marketing budget. That's accountability. As I mentioned in that other reply, that certainly impressed beyond expectation and earned my vote.
Real nice and informative post. Thank you sir.
Nice I see you are a witness as well! Would you consider adding me to your witness votes?
hey jerry, my name is dxtr ow from fb, i saw ur link and created an account! your words empowered me to be part of this project! i hope we could talk soon! i have so many questions about this system, -dxtr
hm
@jerrybanfield -- You're the man, I set you as a proxy. I liked your tour-de-house post and your "green screen" is hilarious!
@csbegu thank you very much for setting me as your proxy at https://steemit.com/~witnesses !
I do not understand why to vote for you as a witness, what is my benefit?
It's a benefit for the witnesses to have support. They are the ones making sure steemit is even here and operating. They are doing the technical tasks for all of us. The direct benefit to you is that steemit is here at all. The benefit for each one you vote for is just that your vote goes to someone you think is up to the task. You do not make direct financial rewards for voting for a specific witness.
In witness-world, some of the the witnesses do not do the things they are supposed to do in atimely manner. Or they just do not do the task at all. But they have to be voted in or voted out. Giving Jerry your witness voting power gives him a bigger voice in the whole witness arena. We as little fish really don't have much say except as a big group.
That's what I've gotten out of this new idea in 4 months. Hopefully I have it right :)
Awesome answer thank you Sharon!
Thank you! Many hours of research lol :)
Thanks for the explanation. Now I understand everything better.
You're welcome - this is a very confusing place and the information is not always what you would expect :)
Great question @allesia thank you for taking the time to ask!
Thank you, too, Jerry, for everything you do for us.
Another great article. I never understood this part of STEEM. I need to read this again but i think i get it :)
I think i will add you as my proxy (or even vote for you if you are in the list). I know your a hard core fan and put tons of work on adding great content here.
Keep up the good work Jerry!
Thank you @ma8trix! I see you are making 3 votes so far today and I would be honored if you added me to the list at https://steemit.com/~witnesses !
Done! Keep up the great work. Cheer!
yes
I need to start following more witness candidates. Your the only one I have a vote in for. It would be nice if there was a category where only the witnesses posts went so you could see what they were doing to improve the community.
Check #witness-category and #witness-update to see the latest posts!
Just added you as proxy. Thank you for you patient, and coherent, explanation!! I trust you to do the right thing w/my votes ;)
wow Jerry. Very good info for me! Your posts really make many things more clearer about witness system. Good job!
Thank you Bren! I just saw your posts today and smiled at the subject :)
You always find easy solutions and share it with us, thank you!
I've been using about 6 tips I took from your posts since July
Thank you @anforo! I see you have not made any witness votes yet! Would you make your first vote for me and/or set me as a proxy at https://steemit.com/~witnesses because I am very grateful for every witness vote received?
Thanks for sharing this article, but I think this is a terrible idea. Users should select there own witness's and creates too much of a possibility that one user could possibly be controlling the top 20 spots.
It's almost as bad as just not voting for anyone.
That is a valid point and close to what already exists!
Yeah I kind of figured that :/. Hopefully as steemit becomes more diverse the "leaders" of the different areas will make it to the top 20 discouraging group think.
Thanks for the reply kind sir!
DANG! those witness are making bank. 100,000+ per year for the top 20. Imagine how much that is if steem went to that magical $10. Great post @jerrybanfield
Good post Jerry but try to make it shorter than that.
Shorter? I disagree.
IMHO the format is just right.
I give my advice as long post will let readers loose interest.
I got so much new to learn from this post. More important - I got a better understanding how much more I need to learn.
Today I've realised that I'm still waisting about half of my witness votes, which is simplly unacceprable.
My pleasure to have you as my proxy, @jerrybanfield
It is very possible this will not remain forever. But this will serve me just fine until I learn enough to feel confidant in choosing my witnesses manually.
Got few things to ask, but....... find the answers in steemdb myself.
There so much info, guys, just keep diging !
great article! You @jerrybanfield is the one of many who continually doing great things for the steemit community.
Post of the day.Welcome bro.go ahead.best of luck.
Steemit truly needs research...this is great work ,a few of us would now be able to comprehend witnesses better.
@jerrybanfield Thanks for all you do for Steemit! I had already voted for you as a witness, but after this comment, I'll be setting you as my proxy. I have no doubt that you'll always work hard, and do what is best for Steemit, and the community here.
I hope to get upvote from witnees😊.
Thanks jerry for shar.
It's a very nice.
Hi Jerry! Very informative. I will definitely add you to my witness votes. Is it okay if I set you as my proxy as well?
not much
nice info great you have masterd again.
nice shering jerry thank you
i already set you as my Proxy. houpe you noticed
Well-explained Jerry, Now everyone can do it. Thanks for your time!
Dead tope
Awesome
Great idea. I'm gonna tell my friends about it. Steem on, bro.
👍😉
Just do it !
Thank you for this @jerrybanfield
i will follow for your, i also saw your previous post about proxy :)
You always share extra ordinary stuff :)
Awesome..Pleasure to make you witness..
Nice approach..👍👍
The Good news is that everyone has the opportunity to achieve the heights..
How much money do you have to spend here to achieve the heights?
Steemit really needs research...this is good work ,some of us can now understand witnesses better.
This is politics in a nutshell!
i set you last week
steem on
upvote and follow
i don't really get how this works this helps but i'm still confused