Welcome to my interview, it is a great honour to have you here on the show this week @atexoras.witness

Thanks, below are the answers:atexoras.witness

1 What motivated you to become a Hive witness, and how long have you been serving in that role?

@atexoras.witness The answer to the first part of the question is very simple to me... back in the old legacy chain, I wanted to test and learn how it would be to be in those shoes. I wanted to get out of my comfort zone (at the time), because I wanted to learn more about something that I really enjoyed back then (and now I enjoy even more)!

And just for reference, my understanding of what the role of a witness or what others feel a witness should be, is never going to be in 100% agreement. And that's fine, because opinions and sentiments are part of how the Hive community evolves over time.

"Being in that role" is a bit too unrealistic in my own interpretation, because this is not JOB. This is in a way a candidacy for "I want to help protect and improve this", and then, the way you can help can vary depending on each one's specific skills, although there will be a class of some I would call core characteristics of being a witness (not saying I have all those). Also, one should take into account that having diversity among witnesses is a great thing to have if it does not compromise the security of the chain, because that aligns with decentralisation.

I think I registered my node for witnessing back in mid-2017 under my main account @forykw and some years later, had to give up... somewhere in Q1 2018. At the time, running a witness node was way more expensive than today, so eventually I had to give up because I could not afford to buy more resources. Then, back in 2022 new year, I announced my comeback, with different hardware and under the @atexoras.witness account.

2 What do you believe is the core responsibility of a Hive witness, and how do you personally fulfill it?

@atexoras.witness Some of the core responsibilities in my view are providing protection to the chain and supporting its smooth operation, either by providing public infrastructure resources or helping others to bring such, reviewing and developing fixes or new code, and also educating the people around supporting the chain. We are all humans and eventually we "will not be here"... but the blockchain will last forever, so it's important to keep building solid ground for continuity.

For me, witnesses fall into two important categories (mostly): top25 witnesses and backup witnesses. I am a backup witness. I don't intend to be driving or necessarily setting the standard of which path we should all follow, but I can help would like to participate (time to time), like anyone can help. I love to help, and that's probably where I see myself more around this chain. I have helped with little things here and there, and that brings me motivation to continue, because it feels like you are part of a much larger decentralised objective than just trustless humans in this worldwide distributed community.

3 Can you explain how your witness node is set up and what infrastructure you use to keep it running securely and reliably?

@atexoras.witness Exposing the infrastructure (at least too much of it) can be considered a security risk. Having said that, I run multiple HiveD nodes from New Zealand, and therefore, I am not dependent on the cloud, and that should help towards decentralisation. I intend (for a good time now) to run Public infrastructure that should improve support around Asia and Oceania (for the ones wanting to use it), and the main motivation was because I always wanted to have my own full node, and elevate my experience to the absolute best response times, and allowing me to share the experience while potentially teaching others.

There are many aspects of security and reliability, like running multiple nodes, monitoring, having a backup node, or having infrastructure that is dispersed in multiple locations. But most of the importance, in my view, falls thinking ahead and minimising risks, because badly intentioned attackers will use publicly available information to attack the chain. I believe I run my witness securely, and it's not exposed to the internet (nodes that produce blocks do not need to be exposed publicly).

4 What challenges have you encountered as a witness, and how have you worked to overcome them?

@atexoras.witness Most of my challenges were time to learn how things would work, and not because I couldn't ask anyone for help, but because I had chosen so. I wanted to experience an unbiased view of things and learn at my own pace. I think I have been achieving that over the years... and I will keep doing it, to the best of my capacity. It's something I enjoy doing... I might still ask for help when needed, and there is nothing wrong with that. Hive is an amazing place for collaboration.

5 What specific contributions have you made to the Hive ecosystem outside of maintaining your node?

@atexoras.witness I am not a programmer, but I can read many codes. Throughout the time I have been on this chain, I have helped with little tiny things (not worth mentioning in my view), which helped me more towards learning about specific subjects than actually helped the ecosystem. I am also a witness on Layer 2 sidechains of Hive, such as Hive-Engine, Magi and derivative DLUX ones. In many cases, I have helped with testing and reporting behaviours or bugs I found when using the software. Again, these are public and can be found by those who understand where to look, so I don't feel I need to detail them here.

If I have to position myself within the top 100 witnesses... I would say I spend 10% of the time they spend on what the average good witness is for me, which is not much, but it's what I can contribute with. And people should vote accordingly. Obviously, this assessment depends on knowing what all the top 100 witnesses do, and I don't know all of them, but I know a great deal about them (does not mean I know everything they do, obviously).

6 In your opinion, what differentiates a great witness from an average one on Hive?

@atexoras.witness Hard question... not because I don't know how to answer, but because this is constantly evolving and I don't want to give an answer that adds nothing to this. Witnesses should be impartial and unbiased... witnesses should not be afraid to do the right thing even if that upsets many of their personal objectives. A witness should care... for the chain first, even if one of the best qualities of this chain is, in fact, the humanised effect! One that protects should not be biased by power, but instead make sure the future of the chain continues evolving towards a technology-wise healthier state.

7 How do you engage with the Hive community, and what should users know about the importance of witness voting?

@atexoras.witness This is a big deal to me... since forever I can recall, I have tried and continue encouraging people to care and vote for witnesses. I am not a fan of asking for votes... It should all be part of how the decentralised governance works on Hive. I enjoy teaching people about all the things I learn, and especially about blockchain technology.

Voting should not be about witness rewards (although there is a cost on maintaining things indeed, that right now is VERY VERY little 😍), voting should not be because you think you should be voted, voting should be what the community sees about you as a witness, and their interpretation value towards that. If you are invisible, then it's up to you to make yourself more visible. If you are too trendy and you don't feel you should be voted that high, as a witness, then you should prevent at all costs the voting towards you, causing problems in the chain, including having to disable your witness in case of need. That's how I see it...

8 What are your top priorities or goals for Hive’s future, and how are you helping achieve them?

@atexoras.witness My top priority is to keep building the community, one by one (because I can't possibly have time to even plan for bigger, at least for now) and finish the infrastructure I want to open publicly in New Zealand. Parallel to this, I will keep helping anyone who contacts me as I have been doing for the last few years, to many of whom know me. I don't expose these publicly for both privacy reasons and because I don't wish to brag about it. I help because I enjoy and know it's helpful for the Hive community ecosystem, not because I need it to justify rewards or merit (even if I feel proud about it).

9 Do you support any particular proposals or improvements on Hive? If so, why are they important to you?

@atexoras.witness Yes, this is also public. Anyone can check. Many are important because I see their core values represented in keeping developing the chain, others because I see them as great instruments of both improving the experience in the community, or as guardrails for the stability of the ecosystem.

10 What do you think Hive witnesses should do better collectively to improve the blockchain?

@atexoras.witness This is not constant and varies over time. So I can't possibly have a position that keeps a valid representation of my opinion at all times. Right now, what I think Hive needs is just more users. More people learning about it... more people understanding what it means (not just accounts saying "GM everyone"), participating in the long term, provoking and improving their love for engagement. And that will bring the rest... The code is reality is very good, and we now need to test its limits on how a larger community would position itself from the perspective of such a scale. I believe we are in an excellent position to become one of the best blockchains of all time (even if I already feel like we are one).

11 How transparent are you with your operations, and where can users track your performance or contributions?

@atexoras.witness Everything I do for Hive is aimed towards transparency (I have nothing to hide), either on chain, public repositories, or even web2 social media, where I commonly expose Hive even if that is not tailored towards me as a witness.

The only things I might not call "transparent" or rather visible to the community are when sometimes I help people behind the scenes, towards learning more about Hive... and the only reason for not exposing those things is either due time (to do that sharing), others' privacy (not mine) or because I just forget. When possible, they happen publicly, but that's not always the case. I don't really think I have a proper place for people to understand what I do and measure me...

I am not very good at keeping my performance tidy, and that's mostly because of my own explorative character. There is for sure proof around of what I have done and keep doing, and I understand that I might lose some visibility of what others see about me as a witness, but I am not aiming to become a top20 witness (at least in my own foreseeable future).

Currently, in my life, I don't feel I have enough time to support the things I think I should be responsible for if I were to get there, and also because I don't think I would be helping the chain as best as possible or as efficiently as others in that corner of the world. I do want and plan to keep being a backup witness, and even if needed one day for emergencies or any sort of need, I am comfortable witnessing in the top20, even, but realistically not the place I think I deserve or should be, for what I currently do.

12 What do you wish more Hive users understood about how witnesses work or what witnesses do?

@atexoras.witness In slang terms, witnesses are interpreted as "Geek Gods", but in my mild reality, I consider us just enthusiasts or dedicated people, amazed by the technologies that can make an impact towards progress and the empowering freedom of being able to bring those to the human society. The amazing work many of these people (I call family) do around Hive is something I have never witnessed elsewhere in the crypto space.

I have been on a few chains, but because most of the chains don't combine the responsibility of protecting the chain with whom "as personas" work towards its future. This community aspect is not the same elsewhere, and this, for me, should be something every account should dedicate some time to...

Finding more about what each witness is doing, and vote accordingly. Note, people don't have to keep their votes forever... sometimes we vote for someone because of a temporary condition, and that's fine! Witnesses are not robots; they are real people, with real lives, and they will do many "extra legs", but Hive was built to support changes, and being able to adapt is very much a superpower to me.

13 Have there been any moments where you had to take a difficult decision as a witness? If yes, what was it?

@atexoras.witness Yes! Having to temporarily give up in 2018 was very frustrating because at the time, I didn't know enough or had the necessary resources to support what, at the time, I already enjoyed. I have kind of spoken about this in the first question.

14 Are there any technical or political limitations that restrict your ability to contribute more as a witness?

@atexoras.witness Probably not... It's more of a time thing than anything else, and because I do have a full-time job to support my life, I can't yet make this my main dedication. Would I make it a full-time job one day? I don't know, but that would be a dream come true and something I would feel tremendous pleasure doing.

15 Why should people vote for you as a witness,what makes your witness stand out from others?

@atexoras.witness My witness message is, "Empowering discovery and self-healing decentralization. Building the community!" - this is what I like to do mainly. And I achieve these by doing many diverse things, like for example helping others towards the first steps of running infrastructure for Hive or any other projects that incorporate it, helping/guiding others in making their own interpretations of the values of the community, and helping or learning with others.

Having fun responsibly while helping when I can to protect the good things that make this chain such a perfect place for anyone to have a brainless starting point towards freedom, trustless behaviours and progressing towards embracing decentralisation.

It is so awesome finally having a chat with you @atexoras.witness

Thanks so much for creating time for meet our Hive witness. Have a wonderful day 🤝🏻

You're welcome.

NB: those were @atexoras.witness exact words to the interview questions. Nothing was changed.

PROMOTING AND INTERVIEWING HIVE WITNESSES IS ALL I DO

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Thanks for reading. Till next time.

You can check and read my previous interview with @kyle ♥ @enginewitty ♥ @ura-soul ♥ @roelandp ♥ @vsc.network♥ @Actifit ♥ @thebbhproject ♥ @Stayoutoftherz ♥ @Wrestorgonline ♥ @Rishi556 ♥ @Botlord ♥ @yabamatt ♥ @seattlea ♥ @Shmoogleosukami ♥ @borislavzlatanov and you can make sure you follow me to get updated with the next episode.

Help a soul today so that the world will be a better place for you and for me.

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