This post is the first periodic update on my witness activity for hive-engine. I'll keep working for you and your WORKERBEEs, but I need your votes for @eturnerx-honey.

Summary

1. Discussion with an owner of an existing HIVE dApp on adopting hive-engine tokens
2. Discussion with a proposed dApp owner and the developer about adopting HIVE and Hive-engine for their dApp. I like their team and idea so much that I contributed some BEE towards token creation.
3. Recommended UX improvements for a Hive engine related site
4. Tech support for other witnesses
5. Code audit: ensure witness rewards don't exceed 100,000 BEE per year after the consensus expands to 11

dApps

At SF4 (2019) in Bangkok, I met a dApp developer who has been steadily building his Hive blockchain project. His dApp is already publically usable, and we recently reconnected. He and I discussed why Hive-engine is suitable for his next stage dev plans.

Today I had a 90 minutes conference call with a person regarding their dApp idea and how Hive-Engine is the right platform for their needs. While the dev was unfamiliar with Hive, I first met the project leader during the crypto-boom of 2017. He knows my broad skillset because I used to advise on pre-public whitepapers. I'm not authorised to say much about the project now, but the leader does have a history of success building community and the dev, although new to crypto, is pretty solid. I've sent them some BEE from my witness rewards as a sweetener to get started and because I think their idea could be a big positive for Hive and Hive-engine.

And that's my strategy: hive-engine is easy to code against, has a 3 second block time and no gas fees. I cautiously assume that most dApp projects will fail but that we only need a few successes.

Supporting other witnesses

In my former life as a media-technology academic, I did quite a bit of UX work. The last course I taught was UX and branding. So, I used my background to make some specific suggestions on how a hive-engine related website might improve its user experience and look better. My advice was initially unsolicited, but the witness in question responded maturely - which I think is an excellent sign for witness. While we aren't individually perfect at everything, the hive-engine witnesses are a vast pool of talent. I hope I can be as mature when it's my turn to benefit from my peers' expertise.

I also continued to provide technical assistance via discord to help other witnesses upgrade to the new version. One witness had some strange problems, and I could call upon my networking background to indicate the likely issue. I also continued to use my stake to ensure lower-ranked witnesses got the chance to produce blocks and prove their nodes were working.

Witness rewards

Witness rewards are 100,000 BEE per year, but I wasn't sure that the witness rewards would stay within budget after the consensus size changes from 7 to 11, so I decided to check the code. I can confidently attest that the rewards don't change, and it's down to this line:

await api.transferTokens(schedule.witness, UTILITY_TOKEN_SYMBOL, NB_TOKENS_TO_REWARD, 'user');

So, witnesses who helped with the consensus receive an even share of the per-block reward. The code is indifferent to the number of witnesses on the schedule, so this future proofs any further consensus size adjustments.

While checking witness rewards, I discovered an insignificant amount of rounding error, so the annual maximum is just under 100,000 BEE. The rewards are also calculated based on a 365 day year rather than a 365.2422 year (average year length). The code releases tokens for rewards regularly so there won't be zero witness rewards on the last day of a leap year. In leap years the rewards will go over budget by just under 274 BEE. The 365 day year is no lie, and plenty of fine institutions calculate annual numbers based on a 365 day year. However, it's good to know this minor detail in-case we're ever asked. So yes, the witness rewards are nearly 100,000 BEE for a 365 day year. It's okay to say 100K per year in everyday language, but we might want to footnote the simple language with the correct definition in a more legal setting.

Outlook

The Hive-Engine devs are very responsive to the witnesses. And so, witnesses have been using this access to dig through the code and suggest future improvements. A few witnesses might even write some code themselves. I am certainly watching which witnesses are doing what, and once the consensus expands will be moving a few votes around. I believe that a decentralised chain is at its best with active witnesses, and if you do too, then I hope have earned your vote for @eturnerx-honey.

Until next time.

• Why you should vote for @eturnerx-honey as your hive engine witness