Hello @solperz, dear community,

The fact that I’ve decided to become a witness is as much of a surprise to me as it may be to you. It wasn’t planned but arose out of sheer necessity. If you look at the list of witnesses, you’ll see many greyed-out names of old witnesses who are still listed.

What’s going on here?
Some of these witnesses are no longer active, meaning they no longer maintain a server that ensures transactions can be processed (such as posting, commenting, Steem transfers, etc.). Another portion of these greyed-out witnesses is deliberately disrupting the blockchain, causing errors.

More witnesses are needed, but this isn’t an attractive prospect because it requires investing in a server with no guarantee of returns. Typically, only the top 21 witnesses generate blocks for Steem and earn rewards.

How do blocks work, and what’s going wrong?
Imagine standing in a crowd of people roughly the same height, while you’re a toddler at the back of the line (the toddler being at the bottom of the list). Blocks rain down, and those at the front catch them and process them. Then comes a large group where some receive blocks but don’t do anything with them, and at the very back, out of sight, are the witnesses who want to help but aren’t assigned any blocks.

How does voting work?
We all have a vote, but… the vote of a fat wallet carries more weight than that of a newcomer. This means that if none of the witnesses vote for me, it will take a lot of small voters to push me a step higher on the ladder.

Fortunately, I’m now on the list with space for 100 witnesses. For the others, you usually have to manually enter their names to vote. This often means the same people keep getting votes because scrolling through to find different names takes effort.

Removing witness names from the list?
Unfortunately, this can’t be done without a hard fork.

What does @wakucat stand for?
Not for platform development, since there are already plenty of developers for that. What I do want to develop is a sense of community. I often hear people say that Steemit is like a family. I don’t quite see it that way, but it is a place where you can meet people with similar interests, especially if you’re willing to translate text. You’d be surprised at the topics people discuss!

Will high-ranking witnesses vote for me?
I don’t believe so. The hierarchy is firmly set, and only those who fit the mould will be accepted. However, this doesn’t mean small votes don’t count or go unheard. Collective strength should never be underestimated.

Is it important that we all share the same opinion?
For me, it’s not, as long as everyone has a place where they feel safe and are willing to give this platform a positive boost. Let’s be honest: if we’re not willing to support Steemit, there may soon be no one left to give upvotes.

I’d like to ask you all not only to support each other but also to thank and upvote the witnesses who upvote you. Proof of Brain (PoB) is what Steemit is built on, and the idea is that we make use of our voting rights and the upvotes available to us.

If you’d like more information about what @wakucat does, you can check that account. Additionally, the CCCN community (@hive-166850) is active again.

Thank you all sincerely for your support!