Block Size

In an earlier post we noted that we opted to increase the block size from 65536 to 98304. We didn't go to the full double 131072 because we're still deliberating if there's indeed a better way than simply increasing the block size. The 25% limit that is set on maxing the blocks prior to affecting bandwidth has to have another work around. Without diligent examination of code and relating information, it's impossible to settle on an answer. We will continuously re-evaluate our decision and will update as necessary.

Lacking Support

By the way the voting for our witness goes, it is very evident that our projects and our presence here benefits only a small segment of the community.

To clarify, we are not participating and creating projects to support the witness application but on the contrary, the witness is there to support the projects. It's there to provide a technical service to the blockchain that we rely on and to generate the necessary SP for creating accounts for new users, delegating to worthwhile projects (for free), and of course curating. Without the witness gaining traction and receiving blocks, much of it is not possible.

You probably notice that we don't power down. All the SP generated with blocks (and posts) stays as is. The only funds that are removed are those necessary to pay for the technical end of things. They come from posting rewards.

What Block SP is Used For

• Delegating 500 SP to @reveur, which is a bot that curates Venezuelan users free of charge
• Delegating SP for account creation for veterans as part of the @chairborne vision
• Delegating SP to randomly selected new users otherwise trapped in account-creation limbo
• Curating posts by individuals who can't get anyone to look at their work, much less vote

Highlighters

We are working with SteemData and setting up to run our own node for it. The public SteemData provided by the community by @furion is severely behind in blocks and has not been able to catch up for a significant amount of time now. This is why both the Veterans and the Steem Silver Gold daily posts have stopped. @inthenow has taken it upon himself to generously compile the Veterans daily post manually, but this process is heavy on man-hours and cannot continue indefinitely.

If the SteemData issue is not resolved by ourselves by end of day today, we'll be rewriting the highlighters to directly pull from the blockchain without further processing.

Time

Some of you may have wondered why Patriot isn't around all the chats that often any more. This is because, as part of @steemcleaners, I am using a lot of my time to combat abuse on the platform. One fails to realize how much time is dedicated by @steemcleaners members to the cause and to the process, which is necessary for the benefit of everyone except for scammers, until having to do it himself. This can be a full-time job in term of hours and for some team members, it is double that. And no, before you ask, it doesn't pay me like one. It's something you do because you want the reward pool to be used as intended. The mountain seems small when you're driving by and looking at it in the distance. But when you start climbing you see how enormous it actually is.

Server

The current server is a 64 GB RAM machine but without your support, we won't be able to justify running it. There are two other servers running the projects and bots. If what we do is really that irrelevant and superfluous. This is a stake-based system we have here. You use your stake to decide who supports the blockchain and who does not. Either way, speak with your votes, one way or the other.

No, if we shut down the server the projects won't end, but they won't have the resources needed to benefit you as intended.

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Like what we're doing? Support us as a Witness. Go to https://steemit.com/~witnesses At the bottom, type in guiltyparties Click VOTE