Witnesses play a vital part in the operation of STEEM. Similar to miners.
They handle account creation (i.e. how you get the username @techguru), the price of SBD (steem dollars), are a part of the mining process (but not entirely), and much much more. Only the top 21 voted witnesses actually do anything, the others serve as backups. (thus why votes are so important)
A random witness (amongst the witnesses with the most votes but not within the top 21) is also chosen each turn to produce a block, these not top 21 witnesses also take part in the votes for a hardfork. So while they are mainly backups, they still participate in signing blocks from time to time.
Witnesses are not miners but miners are witnesses. As a miner, when you found a block, you get a ticket to become a witness for one block/one turn.
Witnesses play a vital part in the operation of STEEM. Similar to miners.
They handle account creation (i.e. how you get the username @techguru), the price of SBD (steem dollars), are a part of the mining process (but not entirely), and much much more. Only the top 21 voted witnesses actually do anything, the others serve as backups. (thus why votes are so important)
A random witness (amongst the witnesses with the most votes but not within the top 21) is also chosen each turn to produce a block, these not top 21 witnesses also take part in the votes for a hardfork. So while they are mainly backups, they still participate in signing blocks from time to time.
Witnesses are not miners but miners are witnesses. As a miner, when you found a block, you get a ticket to become a witness for one block/one turn.