Roughly 2 weeks ago 3 Steemians set up a witness project here on Steem. @swisswitness
Here is how I thought this would go
I am a optimistic kinda guy so for me the glass is always half full
- We have a good server
- We had managed set it up correctly (after a few tries and missing our first block)
- we are good people (at least that is what we think of ourselves)
So now it would be as easy as just asking people that have witness votes left over or are voting for dead witnesses (ones that are no longer active but still receive votes) and they would just give them to us. Then we would break even and we could buy our second server and expand and serve and secure the blockchain even better all the while helping and supporting projects on Steem.
NOT REALLY...
First of all, I have the impression that a lot of people do not realize that a vote for a witness and an upvote for a post are two different things.
- so you can just upvote a post
OR
- vote for a witness
A vote for a witness is permanent (until you revoke it) and is your support for someone that is trying to make the Steem blockchain better, more decentralized and more secure. It is a bit like voting for a political candidate that you like without having to endorse a whole party. You can vote for 30 people you like...
IT DOES NOT COST YOU ANYTHING
But in the end it seems that we have to hustle and beg for votes everywhere anyway.
Secondly the people with huge amounts of votes available are very hard to reach (or just anonymous accounts). Now if you already have used your 30 witness votes I can understand that you do not want to change, that is fair.
But if you have not voted and have some spare votes, then give some smaller projects a chance. You do not lose anything. Your vote on the smaller witnesses gives the blockchain more stability and it helps spread the wealth.
Thirdly there is something that really bothered me and I will not name any names but in the time i have now spent lobbying for witness support there have been an number of people that wanted a financial contribution for their vote. This to me is a strange thing to ask. You spend something that does not cost you anything, that helps the network and you still want money for it??? I declined even though it might have cost us some positions in the ranking but it is not a road I want to turn into.
Do you think it is OK to pay for witness votes?
let me know in the replies what you think on this
a solution to this whole thing might be something that I really believe in and it is that :
Steem needs a bigger middle class.
- This can come from investors
- from people that power up
- can trickle down from delegations and votes.
Once we have a bit of SP we will start delegating that to projects that also support Steem Growth and use option 3 to help build that middle class.
but let me give you a calculation for now:
1 CHF is roughly 1 USD
Server Costs: 180 CHF / month (if paid per 3 months)
Blocks generated: 0,9 / day = 27 SP per month
27 SP * 3(optimistic current rate) = 91 CHF
So that means we are PAYING 90 bucks per month to help make the blockchain more secure
and all we want from you is something that costs you nothing.
your spare vote for our witness...
here is how you can vote for us:
OR
- go to this site and scroll down https://steemit.com/~witnesses
once you have you will see this box:
just fill in the name and press vote.
then the name will appear under the box and that is how it should be. That means the vote is set.
And if you really do not care for this witness thing but would like to help out and trust us (at least a bit) then you can proxy your vote (not your voting power, just your witness votes)
on the same page as before and under the box to vote for witness there is another one "set proxy"
if you have any questions, just ask
If you have already voted for us then thank you and if you just added your vote we hope we will be able to serve you well in the future.