Hello Steemians,

Welcome to another edition of #steemacademy - today I thought I would break down a very important topic - Steem witnesses. Steem witnesses are an essential part of keeping the Steem blockchain running smoothly, and something that I think alot of steemians don't understand. It can get quite complicated, but I only aim to give an overview so you gain a basic understanding of what Steem witnesses are and why they are important.

So what are Steem Witnesses?

At the most basic level Steem Witnesses are voted in by the Steem community to manage the servers, and also to update the price on the server (STEEM, SBD). The witnesses work to validate the blocks on the Steem Blockchain (the blocks contain our transactions,such as posts, comments, upvotes etc), and are paid in Steem each time a block is created. It is important to note that Witnesses work on a system called Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) which is about validating transactions, rather than mining new currency (such as how Bitcoin is created).

Why are witnesses important?

Not only do witnesses keep the Steem blockchain running smoothly by validating our transactions they also work together and have to come to a general consensus (67%) when making a hard fork (major changes in the Steem blockchain). So it is definitely in your best interest to vote for witnesses you trust and believe will make the best decisions for the future of Steem. This is to keep Steem decentralised - Steemit inc can come up with new updates or a new ‘version’ of Steemit, but unless at least 67% of the witnesses update their servers to this version the change won't take effect.

Voting for witnesses

So how are witnesses chosen? Steem witnesses are voted in by the users of Steemit - yes thats you! Each Steemit user is given up to 30 witness votes - make sure you use them wisely because the witnesses are representing you on Steemit. The voting works much like a democracy - those that receive the most votes become allocated witnesses and are ranked according to how many votes they have received. So think about voting for witnesses much like you would in an election - you vote for who you want to represent you and make decisions on your behalf - choose carefully!

You can check out the list of top 100 witnesses here:
https://steemd.com/witnesses

This site is useful as it shows lots of information about each witness, such as their approval rating, the last block they created and how many blocks they have missed. There is also links to their ‘witness URL’(a link which takes you to a post about them, what they offer to the Steem blockchain, and usually information about their ‘server’ specs).

What to consider when voting for witnesses

When considering who to vote for witness here are some things you should consider:

• Their background and knowledge of blockchain and networking
• Their visions for Steem (they often post about these)
• What initiatives they have started for the Steem community.

Have a look through their blog and you will find out alot about their visions - I follow a few of them and they generally post really good content which is often helpful for learning more about how Steemit works.

I am still learning about this myself but if you have any questions drop them below in the comments and I will do my best to answer them or point you in the right direction! I have an idea about a few Steemians who I follow and plan to vote for witness and will continue my research to make the most of my witness votes - I suggest you do the same!

STEEM ON!