Before I begin the analysis, I have to give endless credit to @arcange, the creator of the http://steemsql.com/ database. Without making this amazing project free, I could not have done this analysis. All the data used here is extracted from the SteemSQL database by Tableau. If you like analyses like these, please go and support him if you can, even in the smallest way, so that people can continue to produce transparent and interesting analyses about the world of Steem.

Let's evaluate democracy: Looking for patterns in the witness voting data.

(provided by the SteemSQL database)

Witness vote accumulation over time:

The size of the bubble shows the amount of votes that day (range 1-500 in a day). The gradient from red to green has it's midpoint at 1000 votes (to see how quickly witnesses earned their first 1000 votes) and maximum at 8478 votes.

Ok, so what kind of patterns can we see from the data?

1. The barriers to entry seem to be quite tough since witnesses that have been successful for over a year are very likely to be successful today.
   The only notable exceptions to this pattern are @ausbitbank, @aggroed, @jerrybanfield in the top 30.
2. The most meteoric rise can be attributed to @utopian-io. Most other witnesses among the top 30 have been around since 2016.
3. Most witnesses among the top gained their first 1000 votes in mid 2017, and they continue to grow steadily all together - one might say "with the market".

Conclusion: I'm tempted to infer from this quick analysis that much of the success of the top witnesses is largely due to them already being popular and seen. However, it is possible to break through as we've seen with the notable exceptions mentioned above.

All signs of a healthy and stable democratic environment some might argue. What do you think?

If you like these kind of posts, I would be super duper happy about a follow: @remuslord

Since these analyses take time, I don't post much, so you don't have to be afraid of me spamming up your feed :)

Thank you and happy steeming! :)