<center>![witness_thumbnail_update.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmR2KDhUw4rijkQR1ENhS5u3WHTgZp1UcHH45a8sL2y9P9/witness_thumbnail_1000.png)</center>
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Seeing as we're going all in on transparency and keeping all of you informed, we figured we definitely needed to answer the questions put forth by members of our community for @witnesssurvey's supersurvey for witnesses. We know deadline is today, and we're cutting it close, but here it is.

# Witness Super Survey

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> What is your position/stance on bid-bots (ownership/delegations/opinion)? 
> <sub>@abh12345, @ammonite</sub>

Bid-bots will exist for as long as there are no better alternatives for passive investors to park their STEEM for a decent Return On Investment.

Bid-bots are a business just like any other app on the blockchain.

It's not up to us to fight bid-bots, it's up to us to come up with better alternatives that offer a better ROI.

The moment that happens, bid-bots will lose their SteemPower delegation because it will be simply parked in projects that offer a better return.

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> What does the witness want to do to make the blockchain more user-friendly and help to on-board new users. What do THEY personally want to see done and what will they do to get it there?
> <sub>@ericwilson</sub>

We make the blockchain more user friendly by providing an app called Steemify. It's the only notification app where you can add more than 1 user to be notified about, without adding any of your keys. It makes it super easy to follow your favourite Steemians but also safeguard your account because you get notified about any security related changes.

What we want to see done right now is to implement RocksDB, so we can decentralise the blockchain more by reducing the costs of full nodes. We also would like to see SMTs for projects to have another tool to start monetisation.

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> Do you think votes for witnesses should last indefinitely or should they time out (or perhaps decay over time) so that periodically voters will need to reevaluate and affirm their positions by recasting their votes?
> <sub>@harvhat</sub>

We would be in favour of vote decay if it can be done. But it's not that important right now.

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> Do you think the 30 witness votes each steemian gets is the correct number, especially in light of the fact there are only 20 top witnesses to be seated?
><sub>@harvhat</sub>

The short ? Yes. 
The long ? We see no reason to believe more *or* less votes would have any significant impact on witness voting.

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> What is a concern or two that you have about the #steem blockchain?
> <sub>@johnspalding</sub>

The recent events brought to light that scaling the blockchain is going to be very expensive in the long run. RocksDB therefore needs to be implemented in a timely manner to mitigate this. That in itself is a concern.

Another concern of us is that there is too much effort being put in by projects to maximise monetisation from the reward pool. The reward pool is not the place to monetise, it's a tool to reward. The real money is outside the reward pool and should be the target. 

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> What are you hopeful about for the #steem blockchain?
> <sub>@johnspalding</sub>

Recent events have shown that this community is strong and capable. It's a huge asset. It's very hopeful.

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> What is the monthly cost of equipment?
> <sub>@abh12345</sub>

Around $350-$400 for all the servers per month. (The main witness server, a back-up witness server and a seed node)

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> Where do your earnings go?
> <sub>@abh12345</sub>

Earning only go towards paying for the witness servers. For instance, Steemify iOs is being developed by ourselves without any compensation for ourselves and the funding of the Android version we are having developed by an external developer is coming out of our own pocket.

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> What are some of your current projects?
> <sub>@abh12345</sub>

We currently have a couple of projects running.
* [Steemify iOS](https://itunes.apple.com/app/steemify/id1290154477), our dedicated notification app
* Steemify Android (which is in beta, mail steemify@blockbrothers.io for beta access)
* [Vote bot](https://github.com/blockbrothers/votebot) our small automated voting bot.
* [Nozzle](https://github.com/blockbrothers/nozzle) our minimalistic Python client library for the Steem blockchain.

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> Will you provide an alt accounts list?
> <sub>@abh12345</sub>

Our account @blockbrothers has no alts.
Blockbrothers is made up of @exyle, @s3rg3, @bennierex, @eqko and our community manager @brittandjosie.
@exyle has several alts. Only @exyle.steemhunt holds any STEEM.

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> What are the benefits associated with being a witness?
> <sub>@klassic</sub>

You get to be part of growing an ecosystem that can not only change your own life but the lives of many. Also, it can profitable especially when the STEEM price is higher. We see this as an investment for the future. 

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> How do I become a witness?
> <sub>@steemingmark</sub>

Setup a witness server and get your name out there!

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> What do you think the SBD [STEEM] price for a new account should be?
> <sub>@harvhat</sub>

We currently have it set at 6 STEEM.

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> What is a witness and how I become a good worker?
> <sub>@rubaethsyed</sub>

Anyone that runs a server and helps with block production is a witness. You will need to be proficient in running and maintaining server software, but apart from that, anyone can do this. The difference between being a witness and being a valuable witness is all about the value you add on top of that. Think about providing hardware for full nodes, being active in the community, developer of apps and tools, being able to read and correct Hard Fork code...etc.

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> Have you implemented any new procedures for evaluating potential hardforks?
> <sub>@patrickulrich</sub>

No other than reading the implementation. As a #30+ witness this is neigh impossible to have any large effect on it though. It's not that we can't do it with our developer @bennierex, but because it's completely unreasonable in time and effort for the position we are in.

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> How does a new user make the availability of his vote known to the cabal of witnesses wannabes trying to overthrow the current witness regime?
> <sub>@grimgriz</sub>

@blockbrothers recently started an effort to be more transparent in their witness votes. We select our witnesses very carefully and swap them around if need be. A new user can join this effort. There is power in numbers.

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> Should we have interest for SBD?
> <sub>@patrickulrich</sub>

Right now. Absolutely not. There is already too much SBD out there. In the future, there might be a place for SBD.

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> What takeaways do you have from the Hardfork 20 issues that occurred?
> <sub>@patrickulrich</sub>

Huge errors were made even though the HF in the end was successful. We learned that a better vetting of the code needs to be done by the top 20 and we also learned that once shit hits the fan, this community and Steem inc. can come together and fix it, which is very encouraging.

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> Do you think 20/21 top witnesses a good number or should there be more or less?
> <sub>@harvhat</sub>

It's a good number. Increasing this will also increase the possibility of rogue witnesses messing up the state of the blockchain.
***
<center>
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***
If you support us please vote [here](https://steemit.com/~witnesses) for @blockbrothers
![witness_vote.gif](https://steemitimages.com/DQmd4uuke7jSGrYPZvWBaXYtfaupBWCkSNSx4gdVrQdjVcs/witness_vote.gif)
<sub>you can also choose to set blockbrothers as your proxy at the bottom of the page (fill in blockbrothers in the field)
or use either of the below links to do so automatically using steemconnect.</sub>
<sup>
[Vote for @blockbrothers via SteemConnect](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=blockbrothers&approve=1)
[Set blockbrothers as your proxy via SteemConnect](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-proxy?proxy=blockbrothers&approve=1)
</sup>
***
<sub>Makers of Steemify. The dedicated notification app for anything happening on the Steem blockchain.
</sub>
<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/steemify/id1290154477" rel="noopener"><img src="https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmWPdFqXkrRZZ9xFnVjkfoNmYEXQRXd6FesJ1kAPFjkfmc/appstore.png"></a>
<sub>or apply for the Android beta here : steemify@blockbrothers.io</sub>

Get our tools:

[![Icon_steemify.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmaTi3zzqtBVCJqwfjhgQBBKKtHyNmw8SQu32FXVGM5aBK/Icon_steemify.png) Steemify](https://itunes.apple.com/app/steemify/id1290154477) [![Icon_nozzle.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmaRv4NaHZ29jKazkPwoZoB5eNDrPYFbW88yM5CURHSVC5/Icon_nozzle.png) Nozzle](https://github.com/blockbrothers/nozzle) [![Icon_votebot.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmVjxNT3Jqmsh3NXDJAoJDWvVP3t8Bonz8jiKJZGKj52wb/Icon_votebot.png) Votebot](https://github.com/blockbrothers/votebot)
***
Get in touch:
<sup>
[https://blockbrothers.io](https://blockbrothers.io)
<a href="mailto:steemify@blockbrothers.io" rel="noopener">steemify@blockbrothers.io</a> | <a href="mailto:witness@blockbrothers.io" rel="noopener">witness@blockbrothers.io</a>
Telegram: <a href="https://t.me/blockbrothers" rel="noopener">https://t.me/blockbrothers</a></sup>
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