Witness Survey Response
A response to the recent questionnaire issued to all current witnesses. The link to this questionnaire is here:
https://steemit.com/witnesssurvey/@witnesssurvey/witnesssurveyv1-asqhhy51rj
What is your position/stance on bid-bots (ownership/delegations/opinion)?
Well they've made a few people wealthy, so well done to those people. We have used bots in the past to boost a contest post but do not own/delegate to them. @abh12345 uses @ocdb.
What does the witness want to do to make the blockchain more user-friendly and help to on-board new users. What do THEY personally want to see done and what will they do to get it there?
Engage and be present on the blockchain, show leadership in their on chain actions. Be available to users to answer questions and help them, Run competitions, support competitions.
Do you think votes for witnesses should last indefinitely or should they time out (or perhaps decay over time) so that periodically voters will need to reevaluate and affirm their positions by recasting their votes?
Yes we are for a vote reset/decay. @abh12345 looked into this recently and at present (2.5 years in), resetting accounts with no activity for a year would not change the rankings much at all. Further down the line it may be something to look at though.
Do you think the 30 witness votes each Steemian gets is the correct number, especially in light of the fact there are only 20 top witnesses to be seated?
We have no strong argument for a change in the current numbers.
What is a concern or two that you have about the #steem blockchain?
Will it scale over time? We also have a concern regarding the heavy reliance on Steemit Inc.
What are you hopeful about for the #steem blockchain?
There is a core of a few thousand we hope will be here through rain or shine. SteemFest is a good place to see this is the case. The community here is powerful and one of our greatest assets.
What is the monthly cost of equipment?
This was our last bill for just one server.
We hope to move within the month to a new server to reduce the costs.
Where do your earnings go?
Every SP earned from witnessing has remained powered up. This may change soon in light of the marked downtrend as we have been self-funding the witness server from other sources so we could power up.
[What are some of your] Current projects?
We run the Minnow Power-up League from @steemcommunity, The Redfish Power-up League from @paulag's account, and the Engagement League from @abh12345's account. We also provide data to others running contests and leagues.
@paulag is also now in the process of combining her off STEEM business with STEEM (@theexcelclub) and she has created a free video course published on Udemy which now has over 1000 student enrolled. You can visit this course here
https://www.udemy.com/understanding-the-steem-blockchain-economy
[Will you provide an] Alt accounts list?
@steemcommunity, @abh12345, @zapncrap, @misterengagement, @paulag, @theexcelclub
What are the benefits associated with being a witness?
Knowing we are supporting the blockchain is a benefit to us. It also helps to raise our profiles as STEEM users. As a back-up Witness and with the rewards we have earned to date, financially we are not in a position to reap financial rewards and expect this to be the case for a while.
How do I become a witness?
Decide that's what you want to do, signing key for your account and vote for yourself as a witness. You'll need the bare minimum of a block-producing node.
What do you think the SBD [STEEM] price for a new account should be?
Two/Three dollars seems reasonable. Accounts can now be claimed for 'free' using Resource Credits, and so this number could well change in future.
What is a witness and how I become a good worker?
Have you implemented any new procedures for evaluating potential Hardforks?
No, but we are very aware that for future Hardforks more testing is required.
How does a new user make the availability of his vote known to the cabal of witnesses wannabes trying to overthrow the current witness regime?
Comment on the witnesses blog, most will reply.
Should we have interest for SBD?
Not at present, but this may change.
What takeaways do you have from the Hardfork 20 issues that occurred?
More testing and more communication needs to take place. We also think that smaller but more frequent HFs may be a better option.
Do you think 20/21 top witnesses a good number or should there be more or less?
We have no strong case to increase/decrease this number.
Thanks
@abh12345 and @paulag - @steemcommunity
There are certainly many thousand users on here that will be here rain or shine! People were complaining early this year that they weren't around when Steem prices were so low. They are that low now and many of them have left. You get what you put in honestly, if you stick with a platform like this through the tough times you will be well positioned for when things change for the better. I'm not here for the money, sure it's a great incentive but I don't foresee cashing it out for fiat but to eventually use it as a currency on its own to make transactions. The communities on here are unlike anything I've experienced on the internet before so I truly appreciate that. Keep it up! I will be adjusting my witness votes and adding you to it.
Seems to be the case. Maybe we'll see them again when the market turns? :)
There is a good number of users who will be here whatever the weather, so much is going on, as I was privileged to see at SteemFest, if we can get through this difficult period then good things can happen.
Thank you for your support!
You're welcome, I enjoy supporting those who engage with the community in ways like this that are visible. I might not see them often but I've been following more places where I get to read things like interviews of Witnesses and it is enjoyable to see rather than just running a node and not engaging with users. So thank you for doing that!
I took advantage of the low prices several times already, maybe one or two more times depending on my finances!
wish I could take advantage too, maybe it will stay low for a few months so I can earn so fiat
Thank you so much for the support @cmplxty
Still my favorite witness on the steem blockchain!
Thanks Peter!
thank you soooooooo much