Yes, Me!
But, before we get into any of the 'whys' and 'whats', I have to give credit where credit is due. I'm not going to lie, I'm no developer or coder. My witness bid is very different from most of the higher ranking ones on the list. My name however, wouldn't even be on the list if not for the patience and determined guidance I received from one of #thealliance's other witnesses. That young man is @jatinhota. I implore you, if you consider writing me in as a witness, to please write him in as well. Like a packaged deal! So my praises to @jatinhota, thank you very much for assisting me. Steemwork breeds the teamwork that makes the dream work!
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What Exactly Is a Witness?
Let me be as simple as I can possibly be here. Anything that uses the STEEM blockchain, like @steepshot or @zappl or @busy.org or even Steemit itself, runs efficiently because of people running witness servers and nodes. It's called delegated proof of stake (DPOS), meaning that yes, we all basically agree that this transaction or that transaction actually happened. When you send SBD to buy a bot vote from @upme (ran by #thealliance witness @suggeelson - you should write him in if you like his work) or @sneaky-ninja, we basically write it to the publicly recorded blockchain. When you win a contest and receive your winnings, when you collect rewards for a payout, we make sure it exists. We also generate a price feed and import data from exchanges to give you prices as fair as humanly possible on the internal market to trade SBD and STEEM. The importance of a witness is vital to the healthy growth and operation of this platform, and its descendants, that we hold so dear.
Why I Chose to be a Witness
I love Steemit. Plain and simple. I love what it can do and will do in many years to come. I've chosen to become a witness because I believe in this platform and see what the STEEM blockchain can be in not just five years from now, but 30 and beyond. This blockchain is probably the best kept secret in the entire cryptocurrency realm. It's lightning fast and extremely reliable. I want to be as much a part of this as I can. This is history in the making, and I want to help write it.
30 Years?
There is an initiative right now called @steemiteducation. They are barely scratching the surface with their potential. I want you all to imagine for a moment, that every one of you is in a classroom right now. Let's say it's History. Your homework for today is to write an essay on cultures that pre-date the modern calendar. Your teacher has posted the assignment, here, on Steemit. As a student, you are required to follow her and upvote her assignment posts. That is your way of saying, 'yes I got the assignment and will do it'. She earns her 'paycheck' that way, along with other teachers and various followers supporting her. The students, get rewarded by the teacher with an upvote based on the quality of the essay. In the comments, she submits to you her opinion on your essay and gives you your 'grade'. Maybe other students liked it too. They also vote on it and in turn, that 'third-world' student can afford shoes, a decent laptop, and whatever else he or she needs to continue being a productive student and become a valuable member of society.
So Why Me?
What makes me special? Why should you vote for me? It should be blatantly obvious that I'm not one of those badass devs like @jesta or @gtg or @timcliff. I fall into a different category of witnesses, what I believe has been labeled a 'social witness'. And, I am here, EVERY DAY, with YOU. Swimming in these Steemit seas, bringing massive value (in my opinion) to the platform and doing what I can to foster a great experience for others to boost the retention and participation rate. One of the ways I'm doing this is through a 'family' I have created here. That being, #thealliance.
Our Fabulous Logo created by @bearone
Teamwork
I'm sure the vast majority of Steemit 'users' have seen us around, at some point, somewhere. This is an 'organization' I created back in June of 2017. We are a family that understands you cannot go about doing anything by yourself. You say, "Sure you can!" No, you can't. Everything you do on this planet requires assistance one way or another from other people or organizations. Even if a single person, that inherited a million dollars, spent it all on STEEM, loaded up on STEEM POWER, and voted themselves all the time on total shit, 5 word, useless posts, there are still people behind his ill-gotten earnings. The witnesses. People trading SBD and STEEM to help dictate the value. Exchanges ran by companies consisting of other people that will trade his rewards for another currency, and even further, the web hosting companies allowing all of it to perpetually exist. Even the most independent of hermits have a team - regardless if they recognize it or not.
#thealliance
This is my team. My beautifully diverse Steemit family. I recently asked some of our officers to post their take on #thealliance and I compiled them in this article - Can You Feel That? Do give it a good once over and you you'll start to understand better what exactly it is that I'm doing. Lot of actual love in #thealliance, we're far from some bullshit circle jerk you see in many cases across Steemit. We have members that swim in so many different parts of this ocean, it's just phenomenal the way we all come together for a common goal.
The Goal?
Simply to succeed. Success is defined differently by different people. Some just want 20 views a day on their blog posts. Some would like 10 genuine comments. One person may want to make $1.00 SBD every post and for some $100 SBD is unsatisfactory. The support we give each other here is what matters. The engagement is becoming legendary. We do what families do, we stick together, believe in one another, and accept that YOU are YOU, and we're not going to try to change who you are. It's been growing more and more apparent that the family believes in one another too, as several have stepped forth with donations and delegations and even some people that are not members of #thealliance, have contributed to our advancement. I speak on behalf of the entire family when I say - thank you.
Thank You
Yes, thank each and every one of you. From my longest membership and partner @michaeldavid down to the newest members of the @syndicates like @cooknbake and @katrina-ariel. I would love to mention everyone, but that is an entire post in itself, and I will, I promise! It became obvious to me from the get go, that I would have to show my thanks to not only our family, but Steemit as a whole, for giving me this gift. This wonder. This treasure. Our Steemit.
Curation
One of the things we heavily participate in here @thealliance, is curation. Quality is one of our top priorities and we make sure that people are appreciated with various curation efforts. One of them is the Featured Member posts. The most recent is 👉👉Featured Member:👈👈 🌹@leyargoz🌷, and our @syndicates also have a mirror to expose a member each week. A couple other ways are the Memos and 📌'Notes'📓 issues that highlight members' spectacular posts out there. There are also members within #thealliance that do curative posts as well. @shadowspub runs the Steemit Ramble and a show on her discord called Pimp Your Post. @gniksivart has taken on the role of digging up Buried Treasures. We have members running support accounts like @stsl and @tyedyefirepower. Then there is @catweasel and @enchantedspirit who operate with @thesteemengine putting out great posts like The Magnificent Seven and The Inbox Runneth Over. We have members like @guyfawkes4-20 that help curate with @ocd, @princessmewmew and @velimir who work heavily with @adsactly, and I'm sure there is more I haven't listed.
Giving Back
So sure, we do what we can to encourage quality here, but we also pride ourselves on giving back to a community that so willingly has given to us. One of the ways we most recently did this was with fellow ally and witness @sircork. (you should write him in too) He has a charity he's building from the STEEM blockchain called @youarehope. In the month of December, we raised over a $1000 USD with our 🎅You Are H.O.P.E. Holiday Fundraiser Campaign and gave it ALL to further the progress of his beautiful initiative. That is only the beginning of our backing of @youarehope. We run several contests and support dozens. @killerwhale has three himself. @dmcamera, @sol25 & @leyargoz all run photography contests. @topkpop does an art contest and gives away STEEM on her friday night show on @steemstarnetwork. @detlev has the Beer Saturday Challenge, and I know there are plenty more but my point is we truly believe in giving back to the community and aren't greedy over here.
How Cool Is That???
If you made it this far reading the whole thing, I applaud your enthusiasm to hear my words. It's been quite a journey since my first few penny posts and I hope those that are following me, understand the capacity I have to honor Steemit like it should be honored. You won't find any ingenious codes written by me, but, I guarantee you, I will and do have ideas that are going to blow minds and be considered genius. You would do me a great honor by writing me in as one of your witnesses. If you feel I have been doing great things here and am headed for even greater tides, please tap or click here right now and go write in enginewitty in that pretty little box at the bottom of the page. And let me remind you, none of this would have come to fruition this week if not for the attentiveness of #thealliance witness, @jatinhota. Please consider writing him in as well, thank you!
