Steem Witness - Who they are and why voting for a witness is important?

I usually post photos and digital edits but this time I will write about something different...and very important for every good steemian. 🙂

Few days ago, with the help of an amazing person, I have been included into the new programme and amazing initiative #tenkminnows. This ambitious campaign is being run by @paulag and some other great people. The person who helped me with some power boost, and I will always be grateful for this, is @kus-knee. This man rocks!!!

@paulag's campaign is also being supported by some of our witnesses. So, let's see why it is so important to vote for them and what is their role.

In order to understand what a witness is, we must try to understand how a blockchain works.
Our most important source of information, Wikipedia, explains very well what this technology is all about:

A blockchain, originally block chain, is a growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree).

The above described blocks must be produced and governed. Here is where witnesses intervene. Similar to Bitcoin miners, Steem witnesses are responsible for creating and maintaining the blocks. If the Bitcoin mining requires a huge number of computers (and the associated electrical power consumption), Steem blockchain works differently, using a significantly low number of servers. More differences between Bitcoin miners and Steem witnesses are available in Steemit FAQ. What is important to remember:

With BTC, 100% of the new coins that are created are allocated to block producers (miners). With the Steem blockchain, only 10% of the new coins are paid to block producers (witnesses). The other 90% of new STEEM coins are awarded to content producers, curators, and Steem Power holders.

As you can see, the witnesses are those who make everything possible for us, the content creators. And it's almost a kind gesture (only 10% of the new coins are for them). 🙂

Being a witness is not something that anyone can do it though. You must be a techie, own a server (and this is not a cheap task) and be capable to promote yourself (on our blockchain, the witnesses are voted by the community). Quite high demands if you ask me.

All in all, we wouldn't be having this conversation without these cool people. So...what can we do to help them and contribute to the general success? It's simple and it costs nothing: vote for witnesses.

Every steemian can cast 30 votes which can be changed later if you want to. Voting for these people helps them in gaining better rankings and getting more Steem Power back (usually being used for paying servers' costs).
For those who did not vote for a witness, I urge you to do it quickly. No witnesses = no rewards. 🙂
And it's so simple to do it. Go to the Witnesses Page, check the list and vote for your favourites. Remember: you can pick 30 witnesses. If the witness you want to vote for is not listed among the 100 names, just type his/her name into the Search box and then vote.

I cannot say who to vote for... Personally, I voted for those who fund different projects or offer support to authors. Among them, @steemcommunity, who helps red fish to become minnows. 😉

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The photos I used for this post are from Pixabay.

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