Question for the Witnesses...
If you have been following me since some time you may know that I used to post once a month a short article regarding a simple process I do concerning my Witness Votes. I call this process "Auditing My Witness Votes" the aim of which is to assess if my Votes are used in the most efficient way so, ensuring the proper performance of theSTEEM Blockchain by signing Blocks (signal that the witness works properly) but also I try to check if the owner of the witness keeps being active and supportive for the community, posting and upvoting and also developing.
The following is my current 30 Witness List, all of them working perfectly according to my criteria:
@abit
@actifit
@arcange
@blockbrothers
@blocktrades
@cervantes
@cryptopassion
@curie
@dragosroua
@drakos
@emrebeyler
@fyrst-witness
@good-karma
@gtg
@holger80
@lukestokes.mhth
@mahdiyari
@partiko
@pharesim
@quochuy
@roelandp
@sc-steemit
@steemitboard
@steempeak
@steempress
@swisswitness
@themarkymark
@therealwolf
@yabapmatt
From that list, only 11 out of the 30 are Top 20 Witnesses:
@yabapmatt , @lukestokes.mhth , @blocktrades , @good-karma , @roelandp , @aggroed , @curie , @gtg , @therealwolf , @drakos and @cervantes .
For your information, as an average, a top 20 Witness does currently around 9200 STEEM per month . At today's price of STEEM that means 2800 USD/Month .
Instead, Witness out of the Top 20 but within the first 50, the earnings obtained a month are around 1100 STEEM , i.e 340 USD/Month at the current price.
This number decrease dramatically if you are not one of the 50 first...
The thing here is that many of the witnesses are also struggling with the current price of STEEM, some of them have had to switch off the node because, apparently, the cost of maintaining alive the node surpasses the STEEM earned and so, does not justify to keep the equipment running or just maintaining the rent.
Thus, I can understand that many of the witnesses decide to Power Down their stake in a permanent mode, especially if they are not within the Top 20 witness List.
The fact is that I have seen many of my selected Witnesses powering down and not stopping lately, some of them as I said are Top 20 witnesses and I wonder...
Would not be good to stop powering down and stop withdrawing your STEEM to the exchanges in order to, I would not say increase the scarcity of the STEEM price but, at least, stabilize the price of STEEM in the market at the present times?
Is this not the time for ACCUMULATION?
Is it MORAL to keep feeding the exchanges with such a scarce demand right know?
Would not be better for you to sell your earned STEEM at a higher prices?
...an below the main question for the witnesses which I hope, some of them will reply...
WHAT IS THE MONTHLY COST OF RUNNING A WITNESS NODE/SERVER?
Could we have an averaged monthly value in USD about the Cost of maintaining a server/node running and working efficiently?
Thanks for answering.
By the way, many Steemians here do not have the time or maybe they are not interested in doing some research and try to Vote by themselves for the witness they like...If that is your case, choose anyone that you know he would do correctly as a Proxy, which means that your account will exactly replicate the Witness Votes of the proxy account you have chosen.
*Reminder: if you feel like not having time to do a proper analysis and still think that mine is fair , you can also choose me as your proxy that will vote for witnesses for you.
Just, keep using your witness votes doing an important work.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : https://scrips.io/blog/toofasteddie/question-for-the-witnesses/
Business and morality doesn't mix very well. As you know, block producers are here in order to make money. They need to pay the bills. You are a smart person, you also know that. They need to pay them in fiat currency. And as you also know, STEEM price is quiute low right now, so they need to sell more tokens than before in order to pay the fixed amount of USD to their providers -although there would be only one such a provider, but that's another discussion I am not ready to engage now-.
It is their money. They earnt it. Let them do with it whatever they want.
Agree since it is trivial but let me consider to who I will vote for witness depending on this variable as well, which is important though... Steem price is low for everyone not only for them
Of course. It is your Steem Power. Vote for whichever witnesses you want to. You at least are publicly showing your reasons to vote ones over others. It is great.
I am just telling you that it is wrong asking someone to not do anything -business related- because of morality, because morality has nothing to do with business. They earnt that money in a fair way, they didn't steal it. It is their. They are able to spend it the way they wanted. And it has nothing to do on morality.
In bitcoin they have mining. Miners earn bitcoins after producing a new accepted block. In this shit system called DPoS, block producers -aka "witnesses"- earn steem after they create a new block and it is accepted into the blockchain. The blockchain pays to them to perform that job. It is their wage. Not our issue.
Proposta: que et semblaria a tu formar un equip de witness aquí a Barna, tu, jo i potser algú mes amb qui ja he parlat?
Posted using Partiko iOS
No puc. Ni per coneixements tècnics ni per capital. Però teniu el meu vot des de ja mateix. I el meu recolzament també.
Trobo que coincidim quasi al 100% en com ha de ser un witness. De fet, també he vist que no votes a certs witness que jo tampoc votaria en la meva vida. Però haig de refusar sincerament per les raons que he escrit al pàrraf anterior
(És com si sempre denegués totes les propostes que rebo, però no és el cas xDDDD)
Mecagundena Javi! Collons! Jo soc un developer frustrat i sense temps i amb una professió molt estressant a vegades!
Si pogués ja me l’hauria montat el witness node però es que no tinc temps...però potser si que podria aconseguir cert capital si ens unim uns quants... El marky, el tiu que m’ha respòs primer, lloga servers crec, i es per això que ha replicat tant ràpid amb preus i tota la pesca... Crec que 200USD al mes son el tope de gama... i no sè com afectarà la implementació del MIRA però segur que baixarà costos també...
No crec que sigui tant difícil de fer córrer el node i mantenir-ho de tant en tant, amb certes nocions de Linux esclar...
Posted using Partiko iOS
Wow for some reasons I’ve missed your post. Somehow it seems that @partiko didn’t show it in the list of posts mentioning me.
I have not any power down but to keep cost down I had to shutdown my seed node and I’m planning to spin one back up when price goes back up a bit and I can justify the expenses because I’m paying off my own money at the moment.
To note that I’m running multiple nodes in addition to the witness node:
All these costs $$ so I’m definitely not running a Witness for the money.
Now to answer your questions.
Should witnesses stop powering down and accumulate until the price goes up? Probably is but then everyone has their own personal issues and might be in a different situation in life. I have a day job and I’m not on Steem to try make a living or anything so I can afford to spend part of my hard earned money to rent servers for the witness and other community projects. It’s not the case for everyone so I can’t judge their decision to power down. I play the long term game and it’s my choice and I have the ability to make that choice.
For the cost of running a witness node, it varies a lot depending on the specs but I’m running a server at $25 a month. It is low spec and is slow to replay (over 24h) but once it reaches the head block it works just fine and for a backup witness at my rank it is doing its job and I will upgrade it as soon as needed.
Excellent @quochoy , thanks for your feedback, work and dedication
Thanks for the rundown about witnesses.
At first I was jealous of the witnesses earning.
Man I wish I run a witness as well.
Why they don’t share their earning with the steemians that vote for them?
This is the self-interest me.
Secondly I understand the useful of it and there is a price associated with running a witness and node, etc...
I learned to understand that a stable top 50 witness needs the earning to keep the system safe and intact.
I barely understand the jargon to run a witness (be a developer)
A witness should be able to earn enough and possibly make a living out of it.
A strong and knowledgeable witness will keep #steem blockchain strong.
I learn to appreciate the due diligence to make the blockchain strong.
If possible and with the support of all steemians I may one day run a witness.
Most importantly do it for the love of all steemians and the rewards will come after.
Great post.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Really interesting post mate!
Posted using Partiko Android
Thanks, I felt as someone had to write it...
Posted using Partiko iOS
So true.
Posted using Partiko Android
When I hear witnesses complain about the price of steem it makes me laugh. They control code drops, testing and are considered community leaders.
If you can't make they can't make a witness work, while I think they do not deserve a wage.
Top20 witnesses maybe, I’m not sure as I’m still low in ranking, but for witnesses outside of the top20, we don’t control anything.
I don’t agree with you saying witnesses do not deserve a wage. The blockchain requires witness nodes to exist and someone needs to pay for those servers. Unless you were expecting witnesses to offer to spin up and maintain those server for free.
Posted using Partiko iOS
Thanks for your vote
I think $50/month is enough for running just one basic Steem node
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