Dreaming
The new year has brought a renewed strength in Steem's economy and user base. I see so many new people joining Steem and I believe it may see more users than any other cryptocurrency by the end of this year. The (mostly) original formula, the dream of the white paper released in early 2016, is really showing some fantastic results.
The dream is: if you build a cryptocurrency network that is able to reward people not for knowing how to set up a miner (and paying the electric bill) but rather for their own abilities to share, entertain, or engage with others, you will be able to bring a massive amount of people into this brave new world of smart money. If you're reading this and you don't yet know what a bitcoin is or how cryptocurrencies work, you know what I'm talking about. Welcome! You're on the frontier of technology and economics.
Witnessing
Foremost of a Steem witness' responsibilities is to run a stable, 24/7 available node to produce blocks and confirm transactions for the Steem network. A couple months ago I had a brief surprise outage with my witness node. I had a set of backup nodes running and a failover setup to switch to 3 other nodes if blocks were missed, but it failed. In the end, several hours of scheduled blocks were missed. I reexamined the setup, found out what had failed in that chain, and set up the nodes and the failover control from the bottom up again.
With growth comes scaling resource requirements for Steem nodes. I have upgraded my main node to a nice new dedicated server with 64GB of RAM and more SSD space. This should provide plenty of scaling headroom, but I hope Steem becomes popular enough that it needs to be upgraded again by the end of the year. :P
As for witness parameters I have changed my minimum registration fee to 0.1 STEEM due to the market price of STEEM. This means that new accounts can be made without delegation (as services like AnonSteem do) for 3 STEEM, or with delegation for as little as 0.1 STEEM plus 14.9 STEEM delegated.
SBD APR% is set to 0 because errant market speculation keeps the real value of Steem Dollars much higher than the peg. I have considered the consequences of a positively biased price feed to increase the supply of SBDs. For now I am not choosing to introduce a price feed bias.
On a more social level I continue to participate in discussions and debates with other witnesses, community members, and developers on the present and future of Steem, Steemit (or Condenser, what the web software is named), and its community.
Other activities
Steemit.chat
I do what I can to make steemit.chat, a service run by @riverhead, a better place as an administrator. Overall my goal there is to help users and make a positive example to make the Steem culture a welcoming, nurturing place. For instance I have been blown away by some other network's communities, PIVX is a standout, when joining their chats. If it's Steem's goal to bring everyday people into the world of a decentralized economy, this is crucial. I also have begun to try to reward the active moderators on chat. It's not their job but they chat and occasionally moderate and do other helpful things on a volunteer basis.
By the way, please consider voting for @riverhead as a witness if you think steemit.chat is a valuable asset to the Steem universe.
Open Mic
I continue to help support @luzcypher's Open Mic contests with 320 STEEM each week. Open Mic has been a great attractor of creative talent to Steem and @luzcypher deserves huge credit for it, and he contributes to the prize pool too! Since starting to help fund it in week 2 I have funded Open Mic participants with over 20,000 STEEM. I've delegated 5000 SP to the @openmic account which upvotes Open Mic entry posts.
Steemcleaners
I am a member of Steemcleaners however my contributions to it have been scaled back a lot lately. I tend to deal with the abuse on Steem that I see, but not the mass of it. I have at times felt the need to question if some of its anti-abuse efforts go too far, and have done what I can lately to steer its culture on a better course. This is miniscule compared to the real work its more active members do. @patrice cannot be praised enough for her efforts. She is also a witness!
Looking ahead
I see Steem becoming the beacon for everyday people, including your parents, to begin to see what's really possible with a decentralized economy. I am happy to be a part of fulfilling that dream. We have some big changes and improvements on the Steem and Steemit roadmap coming this year. Being a Steem witness for over a year and a half has taught me a lot and I will continue learning and applying that experience to bring value back to the network and community.
Steem witnesses are scheduled by delegated voting. If you think I'm worthy of your witness vote, you can approve me here: https://steemit.com/~witnesses
hey man,
pardon the off-topic comment…
I made a post today regarding a large-scale idea to advance Steem’s development, and it was recommended to share with the witnesses to help get this in front of the audience who’d be in the position to do something with/about it:
The $1 Billion Steem Development Fund: How Steemit Inc.'s Stake Could Be Best Allocated To Grow A Thriving Network Of Applications And Users...
would be cool if you could have a read, and IF you feel it’d be a great idea that’d serve the community, forward to anyone in particular you know who might be in a position of influence to advance the discussion.
either way, I thank you for your continued service to this community. 🙏
cheers,
Rok
upvote and follow @rikineng
I just joined in steemit
Cool! Keep up the good work of you!
Thanks, it's good to see you got your SP back too!
voted and resteem witnesses! @pfunk , hopefully upload to the first place! I would appreciate your vote in my participation in openmic week 66, thank you very much!
https://steemit.com/openmic/@jetperalta/steemit-open-mic-week-66-got-a-match-chick-corea-cover-and-improvisation-by-jetperalta
ok
Hello @pfunk you are really doing great work to keep steem blockchain stable. I just gave you witness vote.
Thanks Munawar!
@Pfunk Brother, thank you for the support you offer. I am a musician and actively participate in #openmic (a blessing for me in terms of economy because I live in Venezuela and ...). The case is ... right now, in Venezuela, reality is mutating towards the inevitable cryptory. However, there are those two aspects that you yourself aim to ... make us miners (virtual slaves) or on a platform like Steemit where we seek to get the best version of ourselves trying to relate from our positive values. In crisis processes (We see that in the flesh here) people get the worst out of themselves. Steemit, and I'm not exaggerating, it's a vaccine against rabies in my country. I see many people looking within themselves to offer steemit quality content. People who always wanted to draw, sing, write, do crafts, anything, man! those things are what develop us and lead to a positive evolution. I embrace every initiative of yours, of Mr. @ Lucycypher. They always have this server here. You literally came to save (and save) us life. Thank you.
I am glad to hear that Steem is helping people in Venezuela. It's a perfect example of the need for a decentralized, internet-based currency network.
ty!
Truly I'm so glad with your solidarity, efficiencies and patience with every steemit user , it will be nice that you take a break and Check the open mic contest and the musical talent from all the participants , you have my vote and the resteem too!!
Thank you @jmcp20!
I just follow your advice, now I voting for @riverhead as a witness, as well for @patrice.
Great! Thanks for being an awesome community leader @vannour
I'm flattered by your comment, but my role isn't as big you think. Thanks for everything 🙂
Haha well you don't have to do everything to be a leader. You do enough :)
Hello! @pfunk sorry to bother, I'm here again with a video for the openmic !, I'll leave it here, I hope you like it!
https://steemit.com/openmic/@jetperalta/open-mic-week-70-scrapple-from-the-apple-charlie-parker-improvisation-by-jetperalta
Good job Pfunk! People don't always realize how much we do behind the scene and at the same time its so much fun and revolutionary I wouldn't want to be doing anything else!
Take care!
Hi @teamsteem I continue spreading the word about your welcome to steemit post because it is an amazing writing with the vision of @dan Larimer, and the post that made me really believe on the steem blockchain and steemit. So @jerrybanfield post got me from Google to the platform, and your post captured my attention and made me an active user, instead of just openning the account. And lets look at the final results, doing things to help improve steemit. You did a great job.
If you see the comments below, after 4 comments, mine is there, were I speak once again about your Welcome to Steem post.
Looking forward to hear from you more often!
Regards, @gold84
Thank you TeamSteem, you too
I'm looking forward to the next year as you continuing being a witness! You are the first witness that I had an interaction with upon joining this site and you seem like you always have the best interests of the community in mind. Also when confronted with issues like the server going down you quickly fixed it and solved the problem :).
Thank you @snrm!
No idea how busy you are and if you are aware of this, but word is you control the adm account, and since you premined, you are able to do stuff about these:
https://steemit.com/@rewardpoolrape/comments
https://steemit.com/@eatsrewards/comments
Your old friend went on a crusade to destroy the STEEM blockcahin.
Just sharing this in case you did not know.
At least you get the opportunity to liquidate your stake before he does.
This comment has received a 33.33 % upvote from @steemdiffuser thanks to: @stimialiti. Steem on my friend!
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thanks for all you have been doing for the community and open mic to be precise cause i have been part and see with my eyes what you do every week, its not an easy task,
no. one forced you to do all this you are doing but you volunteered to do all this and to keep the community alive,
*The man above is your guild, Your powers are strong *
#Project-Atlas
@luzcypher and the judges do the hard part!
sure they do, is not easy listening to every entry, but i guess music is a spirit you just need more, but sire you have tried helping the community in your own ways and we the community really appreciate what you are doing, its superb, your support hold the community like a kickstand and thats awesome, awwesome sire, blesss
#Project-Atlas
Thank you
@pfunk I need your help! I think you ignored my publication would you know why? https://steemit.com/openmic/@jetperalta/steemit-open-mic-week-68-billie-s-bounce-charlie-parker-cover-and-improvisation-by-jetperalta
Don't know if you will see this - 3 months after your post? I just voted for you as witness. I appreciate your sincerity and actions to keep Steemit functioning and growing. Keeping the nodes running allows Steemit to function; Open-mic allows for a lot of creativity from many people to be showcased. And Steemcleaners is very worthwhile.
Good luck in attaining more witness votes and getting into and staying in the top 19 Witnesses.
Thank you @mgood!
Hi pfunk, a very interesting post. I would like to know, what exactly is a witness and what does one do as a witness? Any posts that can give me info on this?
Steemit.chat is an extremely fun place to be, but maybe it's nice to get a Android/iPhone application of the same? That way, it's easier to be on the network.
I wrote this post a while back about witnesses. https://steemit.com/steemit-guides/@pfunk/a-full-steemit-user-s-guide-to-steem-witnesses
There are also these posts by others:
https://steemit.com/witness-category/@someguy123/seriously-what-is-a-witness-why-should-i-care-how-do-i-become-one-answer
https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitguide/steemitguide-what-is-a-exactly-is-a-steem-witness-and-why-every-user-should-vote
steemit.chat runs Rocket.Chat which has its own apps. Search for the Rocket.Chat app in the app stores.
Thank you @pfunk! :) I've also voted for you as a witness.
great post
Great post...
You seem very busy! I wasn't aware of steemit chat, I will check it out. I saw that you upvoted my posts, that was very nice of you. I was shocked when I logged in today to see my post worth more than $1! Thanks so much for all you do! ♥Meow
Oh hey Meow! See u on JD! LOL :)
You're welcome.
Good post you. I like
I thought it would be impossible to never vote a post of yours ...
I already wanted to do it :)
Thank you @pfunk so much and good that you have done, greetings ;)
I love that you outlined each post and how you will tackle the issues at hand. :)
Thank you
Yes, my friends also wanted to join Steem by seeing payment for posts :)
The carrot on the stick is a good one, right? :)
Yes:)
Thanks a lot for sharing your concept ..I appreciate to your blog..Best of luck..My friend...Best of luck..
Thank you
Keep up the good word pfunk. We're lucky to have you
Thank you @mugsy7
You are doing a great job @pfunk
I must commend you.
Thank you!
Thanks!
Thanks for your work as a witness and in supporting open mic. That contest has been great for the musicians of steemit. Onwards and upwards
You're welcome Steve. I'm happy that you're still around Steem!
I'm not going anywhere. It's all too exciting
😁 😁 😁 pls don't go, we need every one around to celebrate next year 2019 to come with more interesting outcome on steem, though i joined recently but my love for steemit can not be over emphasize, the excitement like you said is making me to try get something more idealistic to get the community more and more busy and more excited hence my new project I'm try to lurk out #Project-Atlas and may the force be with us all.
As I said, I'm not going
Thank you for your work @pfunk !
I hope, your dreams will soon become a reality
Good luck to you in the new year!!
Thank you @dimarss! Btw please see my PM on steemit.chat
Keep up the good work! :-)
Thanks Gandalf!
This post was so Posty!
I still don't know what to make of this, but thanks :P
I'm always joking around. I came here, I read the post. Enjoyed the post. It's a nice post. The thing is, saying 'nice post' is like using profanity around these parts. It means something good, but sounds so dirty. I didn't want to sound dirty. I wanted my comment to snap, crackle and pop. So I got to thinking. This post had a good flow. Water is wavy, therefore, this post is posty. At the time, I thought I invented the word, so I jokingly added the trademark symbol. So here were are. You're confused, I'm confused. I googled the word. ....I should have done that in the first place. This had nothing to do with Post Malone's lifestyle. Just a bit of wordplay that sounded better in my head.
Hahaha thanks!
I forgot about this. You shocked me with that laughter. Thought you were snooping around my blog.
Haven’t taken the time to read your full post yet, as I’m on my mobile, but just wanted to say it’s great to see you post again man :) will read your full post soon when I’m home!
Thanks, I had to bang off some rust for sure. :)
Haha, yeah I've had to a couple times over the past six months as well. Was happy to see things going so well around here since I did though :) I finally got some time here to read your post and I gotta say it's amazing what you are doing around here. Your transparency about your witness node outage is very much appreciated, you're exactly what a witness should be in my opinion. Also, I had no idea that @patrice was a witness too! As soon as Steemit starts loading again (I'm getting 504 errors so I'm posting through busy right now) I'll be casting one of my witness votes for her as well. Keep up the amazing work @pfunk, you are a huge asset to this place.
Thanks and I bet she's thankful too.
All the best bro :D you know you have my support! :D
Thanks Tejas! (if that's what you go by :)
Thanks for the work you do to keep steemit clean. Thanks for sticking to your guns and not giving up! This is just the begging btw.
Thank you!
Good post like it
Great work and development you guys are brilliant.
hot post of the day
hot post of the day like it
well done
SUMMARY
Thank you @steemitbott
I just voted you on the witness list. I am new to steemit, joined late December. And I particularly excited about this platform because it avails you the opportunity to learn, interact, make money and get information. Information to me is power and money.
Thank you very much Dee! Welcome to Steem by the way
You have my ongoing vote for witness! Thanks for being one of the biggest badasses out there :)
Thank you @kaliyuga :)
Great article
Oh, this is great. I would love to be a witness. Smiles
Whoa it feels like ages since I last heard from you. Hope to see you more.
....and for some bizarre reason I realize I am not following you. I have no idea why. Perhaps all the times I was talking to you was simply I was checking the new feed all the time. I don't know. :(
P.S. Fixed. followed. :)
Hey @intelliguy! Thanks for the follow and the ongoing vote.
Respect for your work @pfunk - you seem to have a 48 hors day - especially working on the steemcleaners and steemit.chat front is much appreciated. Also admire you are far from being toxic usually :-).
Thank you @uwelang!
You do an excellent work @pfunk!! Keep rocking in the Crypto Universe!
I think that there isn't enough words of gratitude to fully appreciate how important your work is and how many opportunities you give to ordinary Steemit users. Anyway, Thank You for your enormous work!
Hi, I'm new
Very good information, thank you very much for sharing
I just voted for u @pfunk and am i really want to appreciate u for all the wonderdul things you have done for this community this, i wish u sucess. But my entry for open mic contest week 66 was not upvoted at all here is my link, https://steemit.com/openmic/@johny11/openmic-contest-week-66-mylove
Please help out
Thank you for this post, I had no clue what Steem witnesses were and what they did for the community. I have a better understanding now.
Our goal is to expand Steem's user base and promote it. We really need talented people like you who support us and advise us to achieve our dreams.