What is a witness?

I can refer you to those links among others:

• Complete Witness Installation Guide
• The Complete Noob Guide to STEEM Witness Setup
• Seriously, what is a STEEM witness? Why should I care? How do I become one? (Answer)
• Witness Questionnaire - A Solution for Voter Confusion?

... But let's keep it simple and try to understand the big picture. Steem(it) brings a unique mix of noobs, beginners, neophytes with blockchain Jedis. This is another reason why I want to be a witness. I want to partake in blockchain vulgarization, sharing my understanding with the masses.

Mummy, Daddy, what is a blockchain?

Listen, Kid! You have a book, a ledger, that have the magical properties:

• any line you add cannot be removed
• anyone can get a copy of this book
• when someone add a line, all the copies get that line. Remember I said magical?

Wow! But, who can add a line? Anyone?

There are different ways to do it:

• There is a challenge, a puzzle, that you need to solve before adding a line. Note: This is what is called Proof-of-Work.
• There is an involvment condition, which was basically how much of the currency you own. For example we could say only Steemians that are at least dolphins or whales can add a line. Note: This is called Proof-of-Stake.
• A variant, among others, of the previous ideas is to get those persons elected. The users delegate, by voting, their involvement to them. They are what we call witnesses on Steem. Note: Tjis is called Delegated Proof-of-Stake.

Those blockchain Guardians are rewarded for their work. To summarize, the book is the blockchain, a line is in fact a block and those guardians get a block reward (think salary) every time they manage to add a block.

Why do I want to be a witness?

Overall, the main requirement is to understand the ecosysteem and be ready to get your hands(with code oil ^^), participate and promote the Steem blockchain. A lot of things are missing, like basic documentation. I want to help with that.

Security first

Security on the Steem blockchain means something from the usual models. The censorship has a different flavor here. Also, right now, steemit.com(Steemit Inc.) is too much trusted. They can decide how and what they show. How many people understand that we can build new interfaces, apps to access the social network? How many people heard about esteem or busy.org?

My node has been running flawlessly for a while now. Now is the right time to advertise is. So, if you made it hear, feel free to vote for me: https://steemit.com/~witnesses and type cryptohazard.

Thanks