In case you missed it, Monday night the blockchain froze. Thanks to a very quick response and patch from Steemit Inc developers and coordination among witnesses, the Steem network was able to get back into shape just a handful of hours later early Tuesday morning. Being in the top 20 witnesses, I consider myself as being on-call for emergency events like this. I cut short a date to get home and update my nodes. I was ready with my primary witness node and was the third block producer to make a block seconds after the coordinated restart led by @timcliff.
Reliable block production is job #1 for a Steem witness, especially for someone in the top 20. My missed block count jumped from 322 to 694, but none of the blocks counted by the network as missed happened when I or anyone else were supposed to be producing, according to the coordination instructions. A couple witnesses jumped the gun, causing all other witnesses to miss their scheduled amount of blocks. Not a big deal but I'm mentioning it just in case someone is paying attention to that statistic. :)
I took the opportunity of a halted network and Steem rebuild to reconfigure my seed node's disk setup to RAID 0 to (theoretically) help in the i/o department. It uses hard drives and is still replaying, thrashing away at the disks until it gets caught up. Ultimately if I have more issues with this I will upgrade the server and use a DNS to point to it instead of an IP.
Random things
I delegated a small amount of STEEM Power at no cost to a new Steem front-end app called SteemPeak that I think looks promising. Check it out at https://steempeak.com and see their posts at @steempeak!
This week I was not happy to read a populist appeal to ruin Steem by removing downvotes including calls to further bring down the market price of STEEM by a witness that should know better, and spoke out about it. Much of the Steem community (and the market) also disagreed with his thesis and remedy, thankfully.
I continue my work as an administrator on steem.chat (hosted by @followbtcnews) which includes checking for and disabling scammer accounts.
I continue to support Steemit Open Mic hosted by @luzcypher along with excellent judges @passion-ground, @verbal-d, @meno, @soundlegion, and a couple more that are taking a break. I also support @derangedvisions' photo contests, @detlev's #BeerSaturday challenges, @photocircle's Top 10 posts, and @fibra59's meme challenges.
Steem Dollars
I often participate in discussions with other witnesses and Steem stakeholders regarding the future of Steem and its potential. A notable one recently was discussing the value of Steem Dollars (SBD) for Steem as a network. I still see the potential of Steemit's "Evil Plan" for cryptocurrency world domination.
I believe if SBD were given a chance to maintain a peg, it would bring Steem so much further than a blog-only utility blockchain. Let's not limit ourselves! The potential network effect value of a stable token that can be earned by just about anybody and sent faster than it takes to make a credit card transaction is enormous!
I ask that any Steem stakeholders see that vision and what potential it would bring for the value of your stake. Even if you're focused on posting and rewards, those post rewards will increase with the value of STEEM. I'm happy to discuss this more, so leave a comment if you'd like to chime in.
If you'd like to approve me as a witness, you can do it here: https://steemit.com/~witnesses
Hello @pfunk
I see someone who really meant well for steem ecosystem. To cut chortle your date to take care of our steem is one sacrifice worth commendation! This goes to tell the voting public to be careful on their choice of witnesses. They must make sure only Steemians who has steem at heart are voted. Thanks for the sacrifice.
I would like you to shed more light on the implication of pegging sbd to $1,as I don't seem to get the real point.
Regards
@eurogee of @euronation and @steemstem communities
Thanks for your comment @eurogee
You're right in that I didn't go into much detail to explain why a peg of 1 US dollar value for 1 Steem Dollar would be a good idea. There are multiple advantages a stable-value cryptocurrency token has for commerce over a floating-value token such as STEEM or BTC. And using Steem to host a stable-value cryptocurrency offers even more.
A stable value token brings trust in pricing to both buyer and seller. I'm not sure how it is where you live, but using the US dollar, we have a general trust that what costs $2 today will cost $2 tomorrow. Prices do change over time, and some commodities change prices quicker. But a dollar still has the same general value day to day. The stability of the US dollar contributes to the strength of the US economy.
I imagine Venezuelans would be very happy to be using SBD in their day to day transactions and savings instead of the bolivar right now. While that's an extreme example, I believe such a de facto stable-value token would be very useful in other economies that aren't in a hyperinflationary tailspin, but still experience negative economic effects of too much inflation or even deflation.
A stable token reduces the speculative anxiety of economic participants. Recently there was a day when STEEM's dollar equivalent value went up over 25% on the markets. What might have cost 5 STEEM the day before would have cost 4 or less STEEM after the market rose. And in a dynamic market, someone might choose not to spend STEEM because they believe it may go higher. Or someone might choose not to accept STEEM because they think it will go lower. This is speculation, and the fear or anxiety of the unknown future puts friction in economic behavior. This is not good for an economy.
Another benefit specific to pegging to the US dollar is that because of American economic and cultural dominance, the general value of a dollar is known to more people outside of the country than any other stable government fiat money.
Putting a stable-value token on Steem brings even more benefit. The post I linked, (Steemit's Evil Plan for Cryptocurrency World Domination), explains some of it. The basic ideas are:
Steem's linking and blogging ability is an onboarding platform for every day internet users (non-nerds, these days). These are people who might not otherwise elect to use a cryptocurrency network because they don't understand it, they don't like the idea of a speculative token with volatile value, the software is clunky, or they don't want to invest their own money into buying some. People can make posts and comments on Steem and earn SBD as well as stake in the network, all through their web browser.
Steem Dollars are immediately liquid and as we know, Steem users can cash it out for bitcoin and then to their local currencies. But looking at the broader picture, a stable-value token can also be used to purchase what people want or need directly. With people earning SBD, it's a much more direct route to simply pay for things with SBD. People using Steem can also see the opportunity to sell things for SBD.
Furthermore, Steem is one of the fastest networks out there. Paying with SBD can be as fast if not faster than paying with a credit card. With a three second block interval, transactions take an average time of 1.5 seconds to be included into the next block.
So with a stable-value token, without the speculative anxiety I mentioned earlier, running on one of the fastest and most easy to use networks ever made, you can see there is fertile ground to build a market around the Steem Dollar. But if nothing is done to actually remove the possibility of positive value speculation, it is a speculative token and many of the advantages of a stable-value token are lost. We have seen this play out as the market value of SBD climbed above $1 for too long.
Why does this matter even if you're only here for post rewards? I'll let Wikipedia do the explaining for network effect. If a real economy builds around Steem, the demand for the STEEM token will most certainly increase, having a positive effect on its market price. The way Steem is built, the higher STEEM's market price is, the more post rewards are paid out. This means more SBD for you to spend. And wouldn't it be amazing if it could be spent anywhere?
This is by far the best explanation I have ever read. I have been trying to explain why the SBD needs to be pegged at $1 to so many people but the level of detail you go into with it is awesome. I agree, if the SBD is pegged at 1 USD, it will open up so many different opportunities for the Steem block chain all over the world and for people in countries that really need it.
Wow!! I have been opposing this idea for long but with this amazingly detailed explanation, I am capitulated! This is very amazing. I can imagine chain positive effect this would have on steem ecosystem when the crowd start seeing our sbd as the internet equivalent of US dollar. I guess the adoption would skyrocket, indirectly pushing our steem to the moon! What are we still waiting for!? They should just peg this! Damn!
Thanks for taking your time to explain this to me. Gonna have to pass this massage around.
Regards.
@eurogee of @euronation and @steemstem communities
Very well said. I hope @ned and team can be convinced of the value of SBD.
I feel it's the same responsibility for backups too. What happened during that crisis was a testament to that. While some top 20 witnesses were up and running, some were forced to replay, and the backups who updated, without a forced replay, where helping restore network participation, i.e. they became top 20 temporarily. In the end, big or small, we're all valuable for the network.
Well said drakos....
This is my ultimate dream, to be able to spend my Steem Dollars as actual money in brick and mortar places and online as well. By now, I should be able to purchase things with it at almost every online store that accepts crypto - but SBD is not there yet :/ I don't get it - it's fast and cheap to make transactions, why are people still so far behind? I could care less about the other crypto out there - steem blockchain already does what they all aspire to do yet people are blind to the fact or something...I can spend it in Korea as UpBit exchange has a direct KRW/SBD pair which is awesome. I've already convinced a few of the shop owners here to start accepting it as payment and they're absolutely in love with it! But that's not enough...
There is so much awesomeness in this post. Witnesses like you definitely deserve to be in the top 20. Hopefully your date understood that you basically have people from all over the globe relying on you and your technical skills. I am sure once you explain it like that, your date will think you are pretty much think you are a superhero and want to marry you.
Thank you for all of the support for my photo contests and all of the other projects across the platform that you support. Without the support of people like you, it wouldn't be possible to reward people for the awesome stuff that they are doing to help keep this platform alive.
I'd love to vote for you as a witness. Alas, I have no idea what that means or how to do it. Can you direct me to Witnessing for Dummies please? I'm behind the times in all this newfangled lingo. 😃😁😀
Thank you!
I once wrote a witness guide when there were not any better ones, but it was a while ago and it's pretty outdated, so here's a pretty good one from @timcliff: https://steemit.com/witness-category/@timcliff/witness-voting-guide
Thanks! I'll go check that out.
Much as I might want to care short-term if the price of SBD’s is X or Y, I usually just dump them on the internal market in exchange for Steem to power up.
But I do see the long-term potential for a stable SBD value. I’d certainly have more faith in SBD’s than in scams like Tether or Ripple.
The discussion about implementing the "reverse conversion" for SBD was supposed to be re-started when SBD will be close to its peg, wasn't it ?
Now we are almost there.
SBD actually reached around $1 for a bit. As of a while ago when SBD was >$3, most witnesses who responded to an informal poll supported doing something to fix the peg, at the very least when it returned to $1.
Cheers for the update. The devs and witnesses did a good job of getting things running again. At least this was caught before Steem went mainstream.
I really want to see SBD get used for buying and selling. I used it previously when it was more stable, but there were not many places to spend it.
Witnesses did a good job this time around considering the situation which is nice to see. Good job to all involved.
Is this picture from your date?
Hahaha you can read into it however you like.
Hats off to Steem Dev Team and all the witnesses, especially those in the top 20. You guys truly are amazing - we together help build a better, stronger steem blockchain. PS: voted you for witness!
Thank you for your vote!
Lies... Witnesses don't have lives.
You are awesome, brother!
I very much appreciate your take and reasoning behind striving for a stable currency. I could not agree more with such logic!
Thank you for your service!!!
Thanks man!
Edit: And thanks for the resteem!
Much love, brother...
Thank You!
Congratulations @pfunk!
You raised your level and are now an Orca!
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
Thank you for your contribution to the Photocircle tag!
Cheers,
@photocircle Team
Learn about this photo curation project by clicking >here
Good work, thank you for being on top of things!
Thanks @mweich
perfect combination, so romantic <3
What is?
I think it is about the tags :P
That's important for all witnesses to remember for the next downtime (which will hopefully never happen)
Esperemos que siga evolucionando y sigamos (nosotros) haciendo contenido de calidad porque es nuestro legado para futuras generaciones.
Let's hope it continues to evolve and we (we) continue to make quality content because it is our legacy for future generations.
An excellent and important information friend of true that thank you I like these post where we understand a lot already I am following you greetings
I agree with you in not lowering the price of steem since that would hurt more than all minnows that do not earn enough reward in publication.
I have noticed that it supports many contest I will unite some of them.
Powerful @pfunk!
Thank you for all you do for Steemit!
(from another in the land of 10,000 lakes).
Greetings fellow mosquito food.
Hi @pfunk, thank you for your dedication to the system; can you tell me if HF20 is about to happen, I just read a confusing post, confusing because I thought it had happened a while back.
I notice the wallets are down on Bittrex, does this have anything to do with it, or is it just random maintenance?
Thanks again.
Cg
The next hard fork is not scheduled yet. I don't know much more than anyone else about when Steemit Inc will deem it ready. Bittrex's wallet may still be down from the incident on Monday night.
Aha, thanks man; keep up the good work! :-)
Cg
Just went to double-check I was still voting for you as a witness and saw a bunch of disabled ones; I'm taking it they're all linked to the Monday night freeze?
Good to see that 'he who shall not be mentioned' whom you alluded to in your post is disabled :-)
Cg
I think steempty was the only witness that has been disabled for a while and it looks like you figured that out :)
There were about 6 or 7 others as well, all outside the top 20 but still . . .
Cg
Hello @pfunk nice meet you
Posted using Partiko Android
Hey
Thank you for you response
Posted using Partiko Android
simply i love you for support openmic dude, hugs! i dont know a shit about crypto but i love your support with the openmic, keep on my friend, you efforts are truly celebrated
It's been a cool thing to be a small part of over the last 90+ weeks
I really haven't a clue what it all means, but I know you witnesses are hard workers and are indeed our 'firefighters' as well as our 'brain surgeons' we may not all understand what you do but are SO HAPPY you DO IT! Thanks.
Congratulations @pfunk! You have completed the following achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor.
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Thanks for sharing.
Well!! Hie.. I'm a newbie.
Here is the link to my post. Upvote if you like the content. thanks!
https://steemit.com/creativity/@cherrythinks/echoes-poem-2-unfolding-life
I’ve been such a lone wolf recently, posting Willy billy about what I like but it’s good to hear an technical update in lamens terms. Given that Steem Power is not so liquid, you make a convincing case to peg SBD but it should be to the Euro not USD. It would further differentiate SBD and Steem which could have a really positive impact. I like how in this albeit small community, it can outperform credit card service. That is amazing.
Hey bro, are you on Discord? Steemit.chat is nonexistent
steemit.chat has moved to steem.chat. For some reason the domain was not forwarded.
Greetings, @pfunk,
I know it's been a long time since we've communicated... I needed to reach out to you today, and was glad to read your thoughts in this article, and to learn that you were "Johnny on the spot" during the recent crisis. I hope you'll share your thinking with us more often.
But now, please pardon this 'off-topic' comment as coming from a Steemian who has followed and supported you with my witness vote for a long, long time.
I'm here to ask: When do you plan to adopt Steemit condenser version 19.10?
I encourage you to update your witness node to 19.10 at the earliest possible opportunity, so that its much needed and long awaited features might be released as soon as possible for our use and enjoyment.
Thank you kindly in advance for your prompt action in expediting this matter.
Your supporter,
@creatr
😄😇😄
That's a fairly on-topic question :)
Currently I'm running my main node on 0.19.5 and have a backup standing by with 0.19.10. There has been at least one issue that has come up with past post editing and I think it's better to start with a trickle than to open the floodgates all at once.
Thanks for responding, @pfunk.
Glad to hear you're moving in that direction. FYI, my primary motivation for trying to shepherd this forward is that I have been lobbying for years now for one particular change. As a content creator, I need the ability to edit all my posts, not just recent ones. This is especially important to me because of my approach to developing and maintaining a Steemit Library of my work as an on-chain entity.
In any case, a lot of the pressure was taken off me this week by witness @timcliff's proactive publishing of a "preview" condenser that gives me early access to that ability.
Thanks again for your reply.
Please how do i get my posting key
Dont bother i have already found it.
Thanks
@pfunk thanks for the hard work you deliver to Steemit community. And for the recent upvote. Muuuuuch appreciated !
hello sir, I have posted the witness interview and it's on my blog @pfunk you can do well to visit it. Thanks
Buenos día excelente información. Saludos desde Venezuela. Te invito visitar mi blog
@pfun what benefits of witnesses?
@pfunk I want to know something from you! What it takes to make my post get resteemed by you! hope u ll ans!
Thanks a lot for being such good witness, I updated my vote, I do that every 2-3 months and I'm still voting you as a witness and I included you in this post to introduce you to a very good steemian : One of the best steemians
Thank you!
Good informative article on steem witness.
well done my dear friend.
Hi @pfunk. I just want to say Thanks for your support!!!!!
You're welcome. I actually visited your post to encourage you to stop using Steem for a bit because of some technical issues regarding Steem and its new resource credit system, but then I realized it would sound like a bunch of confusing technobabble just like this reply surely does :P So I just upvoted and moved on.
You may have noticed an error and it looks like as of now, you still can't interact with Steem. But your resource credits are refilling and everything should be back to normal soon. Hope all is well.
More information, hopefully more understandable than me, here https://steemit.com/steemit/@dragosroua/replacing-bandwidth-on-the-steem-blockchain-with-resource-credits-what-is-this-and-why-do-you-need-to-know-about-it
buenas tardes,espero por su visita a mi blog y contar con su buen voto,soy venezolana buscando recursos economicos para poder vivir en este pais,saludos y dios se lo multiplique
Hello @pfunk,
You are one of my Steemit witnesses, and I'm here to inform you of a fantastic opportunity to promote STEEM.
Please check out the information in my article:
STEEM On Netcoins Contest: EVERYbody Wins!
I'm not looking for your vote or reSteem...
I am asking you to take action to promote this!
It seems clear to me that it will benefit the entire Steemit community.
Thank you in advance for your consideration!
😄😇😄
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Yo @pfunk check out my boy super talented artist just joined steemit @digitallanguage I know your involved with the music scene so i thought you might enjoy, let me know what you think! Also do you have a discord or can you hit me up on there had some question to ask you about getting him involved in the music scene. Thanks man hope all is well!
Congratulations @pfunk! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
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Hello!
I am a community manager at Snax. We are trying to make public blockchain based on EOS node. Snax chain will provide transactions over social networks, token supply based on user social influence.
Snax as well as Steemit rewards its users for the content created, but Snax works as overlay solution over existing social networks (e.g. Twitter)
We have no ICO. We already have a testnet, mainnet will be launched this month, and we currently looking for great candidates for Block Producers like yourself. You can find out more about us at our website snax.one
If our project is interesting for you, please let me know by emailing me at [email protected]
Looking forward to hearing from you, and keep rocking this world!
Hey @pfunk, are you not active on discord? I'd like to run something by you if you don't mind. Just a minute of your time please.
Elsie.
Congratulations @pfunk! You received a personal award!
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
Hi, I'm a member of @SnaxTeam.
Snax is a blockchain platform. It was created for people to receive rewards for their social activity (tweets, Steem posts, and so on) and to make instant free micropayments without leaving their favorite social platform. Developers can use Snax blockchain to create decentralized social applications (social dApps). https://snax.one/
Snax integrated Steem on May 14
I suggest you hold a contest for your followers with $SNAX prize pool.Please contact me in Snax Discord, if you are interested in this.
https://discord.gg/Wf8zy6s