Minnow Support Project Updated Witness Voting- A Public Service Announcement

Well, hello everyone. I hope you're having a wonderful Sunday. In line with recently announced changes to governance the Minnow Support Project is changing the way that we will be upvoting witnesses. The changes won't take immediate effect. They are scheduled to be implemented on December 2nd 2017. That should give people some time to adjust to the change.

The Minnow Support Project Charter

The Minnow Support Project exists as a Witness project to spread the values of Peace, Abundance, and Liberty with a mission to help Steemit grow and to train and maintain minnows (new members) on the platform.

What is a Witness?

A witness is two things: a person (or team of people) and a server. The server constructs the steem blockchain. All the information that you post, comment, write and all the money that you transfer around is stored on the block. The servers that put it on the block are the witnesses. Witnesses are voted into their positions by owners of Steem Power.

Witnesses are paid for this service. The top 20 witnesses earn ~100k steem/yr for their work. Folks below the top 20 witnesses either invest money to be a witness or receive a return of as much as 18k steem/yr. Since the spots are competitive many witnesses not only run a server to make the blockchain but provide additional services to the community as well.

The Minnow Support Project is one such service. We exist to help this platform grow by helping keep the newest members to the community engaged in the platform and find ways to be successful on Steemit.

Witnesses that are currently involved

The Minnow Support Project is a Witness project founded by @aggroed, @ausbitbank, @teamsteem, and is also actively managed by several top 50 witnesses including @someguy123, @followbtcnews, @drakos, and @netuoso. The witness votes currently support several below top 50 witnesses: @anarcho-andrei, @cloh76.witness, @felixx, @neoxian, @reggaemuffin, @rycharde, @swekler101.

The project also gets strategic advice from @timcliff, was initially supported by @theprophet0 (he didn't stop supporting us, but his focus has shifted), and we have received marketing support from @thecryptodrive. The project receives several delegations from active witnesses as well including: @timcliff, @aggroed, @ausbitbank, @blueorgy, @jerrybanfield, @lukestokes, @neoxian, and @followbtcnews.

What happens currently?

Almost all of bots that work under the Minnow Support Project umbrella are currently proxying their votes onto @aggroed. @aggroed has been making decisions on who to support with those votes as he sees fit. The criteria is basically "Who on the platform helps minnows the most or is a minnow themselves looking to get started as a witness?"

What's going to happen Starting December 2nd?

@aggroed is going to switch the proxy so that he is proxying @minnowsupport. We'll collect the other Minnow Support Project community accounts and try to get them to proxy to @minnowsupport as well. Between @aggroed and @minnowsupport the vote is already over 100MV (check steemdb.com/~witnesses to get a sense of what that means). MSP hopes to have a vote in the near future worth in the hundreds of MV as others start to proxy the account as well to give the projects a stronger voice on the platform through a united voice. During the weekly moderator meeting we'll vote on who to vote for based on applications the Minnow Support Project receives between now and then.

How to get a vote from Minnow Support Project

Over the next month new and old witnesses are encouraged to submit an application for a witness vote and more formal support from the Minnow Support Project. We'll start just with votes that we'll provide from the central account. Anyone who is interested including new and established witnesses are encouraged to submit a post on the block and describe the services they provide the steemit ecosystem, what they do to help minnows, and what if anything to pledge to help the Minnow Support Project in particular.

We want to make a special note that both new and established witnesses are encouraged to apply for this. Accounts that have been witnesses for a minimum of one month and those in the top 20 already are welcome to apply. We're still looking for clarification on what specifically the applying witnesses provide as benefits to Steemit, the minnow community, and the Minnow Support Project. Despite the name "Minnow" in regards to witness voting we're looking for a mix of established witnesses and newer witnesses to support.

The Minnow Support Project Witnesses and Moderators will meet on December 2nd and vote on the proposals we receive. Votes won't change prior to that to give folks time to make a post. If you make a post please DM the post to @aggroed in the PALnet Discord and attach to this and future posts over the next few weeks as we continue to alert current witnesses to the changes. After the first vote the Minnow Support Project will vote the first mod meeting of every month to determine any changes that are necessary.

The three main questions

What are you pledging to do to support the Steemit Community?
What are you pledging to do to support the Minnow Community?
What are you pledging to do to support the Minnow Support Project?

It's competitive so the best answers to those questions will earn our votes, support, and community backing. Thanks for your time and we're looking forward to reviewing your posts and applications for a Minnow Support Project Witness vote.