Becoming a Steemit witness has been a pretty interesting, challenging, and fulfilling journey. Since we began, I've been head down at work, the seasons have been changing... and all of the sudden it's essentially Halloween!

Part of my every day witness routine is keeping an eye on votes that come in for @followBTCnews witness. It's important to know who is placing their trust and faith in my work, and how I can improve. So when big changes happen on the list, I usually notice, and in the last week or two, there have been some noticeable tricks and treats. The biggest moves have come in the form of votes from @pumpkin; it's the perfect Halloween mystery! 👻

As the story goes, on Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises from his chosen pumpkin patch and flies through the air...

There is one voter that controls the largest vote anyone can receive on Steemit, and if you haven't gathered by now, that user's name is @pumpkin. When you look at the witness rank list, you will notice that fifteen of the top twenty witnesses have a pumpkin vote. Another mysterious user by the name of @freedom proxies his vote to the account, for a total weight value of 14.882 GV currently. (Not sure what that means? It's BIG.) No one really knows why @pumpkin votes for the people it does, but given the last few choices, I like to imagine that our own pumpkin works much like the Great Pumpkin from Charlie Brown.

“Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to!”

Competition for top witness spots is a reality. From the top down, the number of blocks confirmed and the steem rewards earned decreases; many witnesses outside the top fifty make an investment into the platform with no guarantee to break even. But one of the reasons this process works so well is it means that many witnesses work hard to add value to the Steemit platform and to Steem with side projects, volunteer work, or services and products to show that they are invested for the long term and that they are willing to earn your votes.

If you want an example, consider how we've been releasing a ton of free tools and supporting initiatives to help create and retain more successful Steemit users. Our own witness partnership is proof that the system encourages hard work and communication with voters. Obviously, we believe in ourselves and what we do. We're working with a partner to finalize a smoking fast, beautiful Steemit mirror, and you can always look through our recent work and free tool releases here, here, and here to see all the stuff we're up to as new top fifty Steemit witnesses. The higher we rise, the larger the amount of votes we need, or the higher the value of votes. This is true of every witness on the platform.

"He'll come here because I have the most sincere pumpkin patch and he respects sincerity."

It's the Great Pumpkin, Jeff and Crim!

To us, it's looking like our own Great Pumpkin is rising out of the Steemit patch and moving to make new votes for some accounts which in one way or another are bringing sincerity, value, or growth to our platform.

Some of them, I'm really in support of. Some of them, I'm less convinced by, but I'm spending the time to try and think about in regards to a bigger picture. @pumpkin, and by extension, @freedom, have essentially the largest say on the platform outside of @steemit itself. @freedom has over seven million SP, and over 14 GV vests. Folks, that is a lot. With that much, the rest of us can only sit back and watch these votes happen, and hope that they're made for reasons that really help Steemit grow and flourish.

Who is @freedom? There has been lots of speculation on the identities of @freedom and @pumpkin. Is it @dan? Is it @ned? Is it @steemit?
Is it a combination of all or some of the above?

"There are three things I've learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin."

Honestly, it doesn't really matter. Yes, they have a lot of SP, and will really boost a witness. What we can do is hope and encourage our mysterious benefactors to choose witnesses to lift who are also lifting Steemit, new users, and the Steem economy. Anonymity is one of the great parts of blockchain technology, along with decentralization. What we do know is that @freedom and related accounts were mining Steem from very beginning: here are screenshots of some of the very first miners on Steem.

@pumpkin mining Steem...

@disney mining Steem... (@disney powered down and transferred Steem over to @freedom, along with a number of other accounts)

We're hoping the Great Pumpkin keeps looking for sincerity this Halloween. These are some of the oldest accounts on the platform, with some of the biggest say.

As we move towards Velocity, and as Steemit gains more users and content daily, these are the accounts that need to lead the way... so we're watching for treats instead of tricks this week. Judging by the way things have been going, we're pretty hopeful that it's moving towards a better platform for everyone. Have a great Halloween, stay safe, and I hope you don't get any rocks!

Also, don't forget to try participating in Steemoween today!

And as for the Mysterious Great @Pumpkin...

"Everyone tells me you are a fake, but I believe in you. P.S. : if you really are a fake, don't tell me. I don't want to know!"

I'm Jeff, and I'm @followbtcnews.
I'm a top 50 witness, with my project partner @crimsonclad. Feel free to reach out to us on Steemit Chat or Discord. If we haven't earned your vote yet, please take some time to look at our tools and our work. We hope you decide to place a vote for followbtcnews at https://steemit.com/~witnesses