@TimCliff's Updated Witness Application
A lot has changed since I submitted my original witness application seven months ago. I thought it would be good to submit an updated witness application explaining why I believe I would make a good witness =)
What is a Witness?
Witnesses are the elected leaders of the community. They are ambassadors for the project, and many of them work on things to improve the value of the platform.
Witnesses are tasked with validating and producing the blocks for the blockchain, which ensures everything in the network operates smoothly and correctly. Every three seconds one of the witnesses assemble all of the transactions that have occurred (such as posts, comments, votes, STEEM/SBD transfers) into a "block" and then they store all that information in the distributed database network called the "blockchain".
Witnesses are also responsible for maintaining an accurate and up-to-date price feed, as well as deciding on several important blockchain parameters. Witnesses control the cost for websites like Steemit.com to create a new account, and decide how much interest to pay for holding SBD. Many witnesses also host a public 'seed' node that other witnesses and the rest of the community can use to interact with the blockchain.
For more information on what witnesses do, and how to select good witnesses - check out this Witness Voting Guide!
Who is @timcliff?
I'm 33 years old, and I live in New Brighton, MN. I am happily married to @artist1989 =)
I have a Bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Minnesota. I have nine years of experience in professional software development, working for a "Software-as-a-Service" company that develops applications for the energy industry. I spent most of my career as a software developer, although I have recently transitioned into more of a project management role.
If you want to learn more about me, you can check out my "reintroduceyourself" post!
How is @timcliff Involved?
- I am actively posting, commenting, curating/voting, and resteeming good content.
- I helped to organize all of the community's ideas into the Steemit Wish List.
- I worked with @bitcoiner to create the Steemit.com Quick Start Guide (formally the "Welcome Page") to provide new users the information they need to get started after signing up for a new account.
- I am heavily involved in discussions on how to improve the platform and whether to accept hardforks.
- I review all activity in the Steem and Condenser GitHub repositories and frequently comment and make suggestions. I frequently submit pull requests with various enhancements and glitch fixes.
- I ran an experiment called @the.masses to see what would happen if everyone in the community had access to the private posting key of an account.
- I worked with @pfunk and several members of the community to submit pull request 1352 to add over a hundred new questions/answers to the Steemit.com FAQ page.
- I submit periodic Steemit Development Updates - GitHub Report posts to let the community know what the Steemit dev team has been up to in GitHub.
- I create a weekly Reports from the Witnesses post that provides the community a summary of all the witness update posts from the past week.
- I attended the Beyond Bitcoin Show to talk about the Steem/Steemit platform, and experience a backup Steem/Steemit witness.
- I created Instructions for Installing a Steemit.com Instance (for Developers).
- I have hosted several bounties and contests to reward the community for participating and being involved.
- I regularly submit witness reports to the community to let everyone know what I'm up to.
What are @timcliff's Views on Steem/Steemit Topics?
- Everything you need to know about potential payouts and flagging
- Updated thoughts on 'the whale experiment'
- SBD Debt Reduction - A Fiscally Conservative View
- Whales - Can the community buy out a portion of your influence?
- Proposal for three new communities to spur growth, increase user retention, and incentive investment: Witch Hunters, Flag Wars, and Trolls (Humor)
- Why The STEEM Bubble Was an Investment Round and Not a Product Launch (post from @dan-atstarlite)
- Do you want to be a Steemit BETA Tester? [A New Recruitment Model]
- Steemit's Biggest Investment Problem - The Cost/Benefit Analysis Reward Curve
- No. You do not own Steemit, Inc.
- The Battle of Upvote Weights
- Attention: Calling All Developers - Let's Polish The Steemit.com Mothership!
- Attention Sharks - There is blood in the water. Are you ready to invest?
Server Architecture
I run a primary witness server as well as a backup server, that both run 24/7/365. I have an automated script that runs to detect if my primary server starts missing blocks, and if it detects that the node is failing it automatically switches over to the backup server. I do periodic maintenance on the servers, but I only work on a server when the other one is running as the active node.
Server Specs:
- Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
- Processor: AMD 3.1 GHz, 6 cores
- RAM: 32 GB DDR3
- Hard Drive: 3 TB
Security:
- Remote Hosting
- SSH keys to login
- Password authentication disabled
- Root login disabled
Seed Node:
I run a seed node with high availability. It is hosted in a data-center in France, so it will provide the best latency to European users. The address of the server is 176.31.126.187:2001. The status can be seen on @wackou's https://status.steemnodes.com/ seed monitor page.
Interested in Becoming a Witness?
If you are interested in becoming a witness, check out this guide from @bitcalm. It is a great resource, and provides pretty much all the info you need to get a witness node up and running! You may also be interested in learning how much witnesses make per block. The information in the posts may be slightly out of date, but they are still fairly accurate, and at least a great place to start.
Voting
If you think I will make a great witness, please vote for me here:
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
Or via the command line: vote_for_witness youraccount timcliff true true
Thanks
Thank you for taking the time to read my witness application post!
@timcliff is active in help chat, active on steemit and one of the first whales you will encounter in the steemit ocean as a young minnow. And he will improve your day just by meeting him, and he may not even know he is doing that for so many. If he does know it, he is awfully humble about it! Great work @timcliff you've helped me and forgotten it by now but now I'm returning the favor, as I've locked in my witness vote for you and will keep it that way until you decide you don't want to do it anymore. So glad you are in the backbone of the "Steem beest". ;)
I'll only vote if he'll make me billions of rubble's, that I than convert in Canadian Pennies
Thanks @sircork - I really appreciate it!
We're all counting on you, Obi-TimCliff!
Also, I tagged you in a comment I posted on a very interesting "question for and about whales" post this morning from someone I am following. I am sure you have a lot to wade through, but I'd be very interested in your answer on it when and if you have time. Thanks in advance!
Replied.
ty tim couldnt ask for better
Thank you so much for your time and attention! I knew you would know!
Amazing job! I love how much you're involved to this site Mr.Cliff, I'm new here but, I would gladly vote for you!
Thanks :)
Please vote me
very good
@timcliff, thank you so much for all you do. I really appreciate the simple explanation you gave regarding what a witness actually does. Happy to support you. I just voted.
Thanks!
im glad i stumbled upon this, i'm new and looking to jump in head first and you are setting a great example of the different opportunities and what it takes to make things happen here,
Thanks :)
great job man
Thanks :)
I've been on steemit since 27th June 2017 and certain names pop out from time to time doing useful things around the site.
You have been present, which is in my view one of the most important attribute of a witness. Amongst many other things.
You got my vote @timcliff
Thank you. Much appreciated :)
My pleasure keep up the good work. We need it.
You earned a vote just to explain what the heck a witness means. Good work on Steemit. Great going. All the best. 🙌
Thanks :)
It's all my pleasure. You are welcome. :D
@timcliff you are a great person i came to know about steemit because of you and i voted you as my steem witness.
Cool, thanks :) How did you hear about it?
from your youtube videos
Cool :)
How can start my own witness server can help me to setup the server or do have any guide post about this ?
Yes, can you message me on Steemit chat?
@timcliff though I'm pretty new here I'm currently absorbing every single information I can get about steemit and this amazing community. The last few days were reserved for the "witness" topic :)
Thanks for clarifying what a witness is and how I can help to support the people making steemit what it is: the future of social networks. Fair and transparent.
Just voted for you and thanks for what you do - it's because of people like you we can use and grow steemit :)
Cool, thanks :)
Hi guys. Hello @timcliff. I am new around here, but I stumbled upon this "Witness" stuff and it got me thinking... Could I humbly request to you, can you please explain the system and community a bit further to me? Hey, I could go ask Wikipedia or something, but I am already here. :D I will not lie or anything; a friend told me about this website, and I am 100 dollars short on this project that I have so I thought, hey, why not give it a try? :D Thank you beforehand for all and any help!
Well, it is not a get rich quick scheme. If you are interested in making money from the platform, it usually takes quite a bit of effort. The bigger earners on the site are typically people that have been at it for a while. It is something that you can succeed at and make decent money from if you put the work in though. I've been here for about a year and a half, and I started out not knowing anybody (or earning any rewards) when I first started too - so it can be done :)
As far as resources, I suggest that you first check out the "Welcome" page in the main menu. I actually helped put that page together :) It is intended to help new users get started on the platform. The section near the bottom that has 'helpful posts from users' has a lot of really good info. In addition to that page, there is also the FAQ page, which has a lot more in depth info.
If you have any other questions, let me know. I'm happy to help :)
Actually I feel like you've pointed me in the right direction --thanks! I will check out those resources and get back to you if I get any questions. :D
Although, something does come to mind: I've upvoted a lot of stuff since I first got here, but I see many of those things don't go up in "earnings" in any way --some even remain at USD 0.00. :( Why is that? I know I am doing something wrong, just don't know what it is.
It is kind of frustrating, because if this "curating" isn't giving rewards to me or the people I upvote, will upvotes from others help my stuff? :(
That is actually covered in the FAQ, but the short answer is because you don't have much Steem Power. The more SP you have, the more your votes are worth, and the more you earn through curation.
I thought we were given a bit of something free with the account --was it not Steem Power? If it was, it was very little of it then, wasn't it? :|
It was, but it was very little.
Oh, okay, well I hope I'll learn to earn that Steem Power soon then! Thanks @timcliff
:)
BTW is it okay that I upvoted my own comment up here? ^
It is allowed. There are differing views as far as whether it is good etiquette. Lots of people do it though, so it is up to you.
Hey @timcliff you got my vote
thanks
Cool, thank you! :)
you have my vote