How Engaged Are Steem Users in Voting for Witnesses?
That's what this monthly report is all about!
This month's engagement rate for accounts with 100,000 VESTS or more is:
25.97%
That's up 3.4% since last month, with a 18.6% increase in new accounts.
I'm glad to see voting engagement is increasing, but right now it's not increasing to keep pace with the increase in new accounts. Part of the reason for this may be there are some people "farming" accounts to game the system so that increase in accounts may not actually be an increase in users. That means voting engagement of actual human beings may be better than the numbers show.
If you're not sure what a witness vote is, or why it's important, please see my older post Steemit is Free, But Your Witness Vote Determines its Future.
Witnesses, within a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPOS) blockchain like STEEM, are very important because they protect the blockchain and add new blocks with validated transactions to it. Unlike Bitcoin or other Proof of Work (POW) blockchains, there is no concern with centralized mining farms controlling or forking the protocol into something the users don't want. With DPOS, the largest stake holders get to pick who controls the protocol and those stake holders can change the witnesses at any time by changing their witness votes. For a detailed explanation of DPOS, see DPOS Consensus Algorithm - The Missing White Paper. You can also see this post of mine for why I'm such a fan.
This report uses @arcange's STEEMSQL.
MV stands for Million VESTS.
VESTS are like vested shares in Steemit and relate to Steem by a ratio (486.871 Steem per MV as of this report).
VESTS impact the weight of your vote on posts and the influence of your vote for Steemit Witnesses.
Here's how I'm filtering the data:
All Accounts: No filter applied, includes all accounts.> 100,000: Accounts with 100,000 or more VESTS.> 0 Posts: Accounts which have posted at least once.> 100k & > 0 Posts: Accounts with 100,000 or more VESTS who have also posted at least once.Active: Accounts which have voted, commented, and posted a root post in the last 30 days.
The percentage values in parentheses show the change since last month's report.
The total VEST numbers listed below don't include accounts belonging to Steemit, the company, which are not currently participating in witness voting.
Overview
This shows the total number of accounts and VESTS.
| Filter | Accounts | % Accounts | VESTS | % VESTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Accounts | 613,664 (18.6%) | 100% | 209,841 (6.3%) | 100% |
| > 100,000 VESTS | 31,597 (8.2%) | 5.15% (8.8%) | 205,136 (6.3%) | 97.76% (0%) |
| > 0 Posts | 274,582 (21.1%) | 44.74% (2.1%) | 138,340 (3%) | 65.93% (3.4%) |
| > 100k & > 0 Posts | 22,280 (7.9%) | 3.63% (-9%) | 136,216 (2.9%) | 64.91% (-3.5%) |
| Active | 81,858 (61%) | 13.34% (35.8%) | 78,227 (5.8%) | 38.13% (-0.5%) |
Voters
This shows the total number of accounts and VESTS which have voted for a witness or set a proxy.
| Filter | Accounts | % Accounts | VESTS | % VESTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Accounts | 25,602 (22.4%) | 4.17% (3.2%) | 132,415 (5.6%) | 63.1% (-1%) |
| > 100,000 VESTS | 8,206 (11.8%) | 25.97% (3.4%) | 132,159 (5.6%) | 64.43% (-1%) |
| > 0 Posts | 21,358 (26.8%) | 7.77% (4.6%) | 105,227 (6.6%) | 76.06% (3.4%) |
| > 100k & > 0 Posts | 7,693 (12.7%) | 34.53% (4.5%) | 104,998 (6.6%) | 77.08% (3.5%) |
| Active | 12,759 (51.2%) | 15.56% (-6.3%) | 62,186 (10.5%) | 79.49% (4%) |
Voting For Inactive Witnesses
This shows the number of accounts which are currently voting for witness accounts in the top 100 there not currently active witnesses. This number should be 0.
| Filter | Accounts | % Accounts | VESTS | % VESTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Accounts | 4,665 (-5.9%) | 18.22% (-5.9%) | 43,150 (-22.5%) | 32.59% (-22.5%) |
| > 100,000 VESTS | 1,520 (-17.3%) | 18.52% (-17.4%) | 43,101 (-22.5%) | 32.61% (-22.6%) |
| > 0 Posts | 4,413 (-5.2%) | 20.66% (-5.2%) | 42,693 (-22.6%) | 40.57% (-22.6%) |
| > 100k & > 0 Posts | 1,492 (-17.1%) | 19.39% (-17.1%) | 42,647 (-22.6%) | 40.62% (-22.6%) |
| Active | 2,185 (5%) | 17.13% (-5.1%) | 26,121 (-17.6%) | 42.01% (-17.6%) |
These are the inactive witnesses in the top 100 as of this report, but keep in mind some of them may only be temporarily inactive:
steempty
witness.svk
roadscape
datasecuritynode
bacchist
arhag
au1nethyb1
agoric.systems
cyrano.witness
bayareacoins
steem-id
tdv.witness
team.alpha
picokernel
Have You Voted for a Witness?
If you haven't voted yet, please consider setting @lukestokes as your proxy voter. Otherwise, go vote for some Steemit Witnesses you respect who you believe will do what's in the best interest of the network. I hope that includes my witness, @lukestokes.mhth. If you're not sure who to vote for, take a look at some witnesses you respect and see who they are voting for via their account on steemd.com or steemdb.com. Some witnesses are very active behind the scenes supporting important projects, but not as active as bloggers, so keep that in mind when you vote. This should not be a popularity contest favoring those who are the best communicators (though communication as a witness is certainly important). It's meant to put in place the best people to support the STEEM blockchain. That includes multiple dimensions from technical expertise to economic theory to community building.
For more on what witnesses are doing each week, follow @timcliff's weekly Reports from the Witnesses post.
Again, if you're not sure what a witness vote is, or why it's important, please see my older post Steemit is Free, But Your Witness Vote Determines its Future.
Thank you! I hope you found this useful.
Previous Reports:
- 2017-12-21
- 2017-11-15
- 2017-10-18
- 2017-09-20
- 2017-09-13
- 2017-09-06
- 2017-08-30
- 2017-08-24
- 2017-08-16
- 2017-08-08
- 2017-08-01
Thank you @lukestokes. My partners and I have noticed the farming of accounts, however, unsure what the extent is. Also noticed on more than one occasion that witnesses/wantabe witnesses have alternative accounts to act as the witness. I can think of some rationale, however, being a newbie, is this beneficial to all for witnesses to have a supplemental inactive account separate from their personal/original account? Hope my question makes sense.
I, personally, run a separate witness (@lukestokes.mhth) so that I can keep track of witness rewards separately from my own rewards as a blogger, curator, etc. Lately I've been doing some Steem Power delegations from that account and it makes it easier in my own mind if that's all kept separate from my personal account. Currently, when dealing with witness processes such as maintaining a price feed, the active key has to be used, and I like having a different account just so when I use my active key personally for transfers, there's no chance that could be exposed in a way that would put my witness activities at risk (though, to be clear, the block signing processes uses a separate key anyway, but that's probably more info that you care about).
I don't really think it's a big enough deal to argue one way or the other or tell other witnesses what they should or shouldn't be doing in this regard. I think it's mostly a matter of personal preference.
This is a good question, I was wondering the very same thing. I will come back later here to see what is the answer :)
Thank you for the reply and can see the benefits more so of running a separate key, which I jsut noticed was the actual key I voted for.
Hi @lukestokes Thanks for keeping us updated on witness voting, and letting steemit community know more about the importance of witnesses and what is going on with the votes towards witnesses. In my specific case I wanted to vote several times in the past and it wnet through but then it vanished in several intents. Finally I was able to do it. Perhaps when the system lets do the votes more direct, with steemconnect or vessel, it may be easier and that will also help increase the voting toward witnesses, in addition to people understanding why witness votes are so important for the blockchain! I will be posting about this in chapter 12, which is the first bonus chapter!
I was wondering if you read my comment this morning, regarding your post to hold on crypto while the market goes 40% or more downwards.
Also, I am not sure if you had the chance to check Chapter 7 were I made a big mention for you!
Chapter 7 of 11: Learning "When and How to use Voting bots to upvote Quality Posts that you would like to be reached by more people - & how Cheetah bots help avoid Plagiarism"
https://steemit.com/promo-steem/@gold84/chapter-7-of-11-learning-when-and-how-to-use-voting-bots-to-upvote-quality-posts-that-you-would-like-to-be-reached-by-more
Regards, @gold84
This is probably a weird question, but is it possible to set up a limited proxy vote? I've voted for several witnesses including you and would like to vote for a few more, but in all honesty I do not know too many Steemians and would be interested in giving you my vote by proxy for some of them. I'm not sure if that is even possible.
That's not currently possible, no. It's either the proxy handles all your votes or you still manage the votes yourself.
Thank you for sharing this lovely status and keeping us inform here, keep it up
actually this post is helpful for us..i gain knowledge about steemit voting idea..thanks for sharing my friend....
Very nic post
good job,thank you for sharing with us. dear @lukestokes
any insight on the Steemit Account Powering down ?
It seems they send the funds to steemit2 and eventually on to alpha which is run by blocktrades so it may just be them paying for operational expenses. For more along those lines, watch the blockchain and the weekly exchange transfer report that I've been doing.
yes, I noticed they were then redistributing... was curious if there were any other details behind it, thanks
I'm really glad to hear you guys are looking out for people trying to game this platform. I've been seeing quite a bit of people doing this on threads to get upvotes as well as copy and paste articles from elsewhere on the web in their blogs taking credit from it as their own. I totally support your efforts in making this platform the best it can be!
As you see that, please let people know about it in the steemitabuse channel in steemit.chat.
Thanks for the information! I think that we all need to keep this platform for content creators and work together to stop people from taking advantage when we see it.
hei nice thinking..good job.. carry on dear...
Great post. I've been slowly picking a couple witness votes as I leaern more about them. Really been enjoyed @davidpakman's interviews with witnesses -- very informative. I definitely need to learn a bit more about what witnesses do, and each of their opinions on the roadmaps forward and the protocols to get us there.
Thanks for always busting my bubbles with your scoop and facts.
awesome article about witness votes
Great report Luke!
Sure I already voted for you.
Have to check out some of the other witnesses.
Considered some month ago to support Steemit network as a full node, but from what I”ve learnt, it is difficult to become a witness. My impression: “members only club”
That's a valid impression from a certain point of view, but I don't think it's fully accurate. Anyone who provides value to the network can quickly be recognized by all stake holders for providing that value. If you were to do so, I do think you would be recognized. The key question isn't exactly, "Can I become a block producer?" as much as it's, "Could I provide enough value to the network that people on the network would feel good about rewarding me as a block producer?"
I didn't decide to become a witness for a very long time (almost a year) because I doubted whether or not I could provide enough consistent value to genuinely earn that position. I've since come to think I've helped enough people here with my approach of educating people about cryptocurrency and STEEM/Steemit. I work to be a developer who can communicate (fairly well) complicated things in simplified terms.
It is true that the "members" (those with the most stake in STEEM via Steem Power) get to determine who works to secure the network (and thus, their investment), but I see that as a feature, not a bug. Those who have the most stake in STEEM should, IMO, be the most concerned with it's security and longevity. Yes, the wider community on Steemit, Busy, ChainBB, DTube, DLive, UtopianIO, etc, etc also have a say, but their say should at least be related to their level of actual involvement and investment (i.e. Steem Power) for their opinions and views to be more valuable than anyone else's. This is how DPOS reliably secures a blockchain.
Thank you for reply. Ok, understand you point.
Unfortunately I haven't enough time to support Steemit like you, but I wish I could.
What I can do, is to run a full node with a 128Gb Ramdisk and a fast internet connection (1Gbit/s) when it is needed.
For this purpose I need do upgrade my hardware and ISP.
Maybe there is no need right now, but if Steemit keeps growing, maybe there will.
That would provide excellent value to the network if and when more API nodes are needed (things have been a bit doggy lately as we may already be beyond the 128G mark). One thing you may consider is crowdfunding the costs of that full API node and potentially involving some witnesses who could help fund it with a portion of their witness pay.
Coukd be interesting. Would need a cost/profit analyses. Guess that 1Gbit up/down and 256Gbyte Ram is required.
Up-voted and more importantly I voted for your witness.
Thank you for your support. I do greatly appreciate it. :)
Thanks Luke. This is my first time thinking about witness voting. Still trying to bend my brain around it but your post was really helpful. Thanks :)
Glad to hear it! Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thank you for your diligence and useful work - it was interesting to understand a little. Perhaps I will vote for you
I'd appreciate your support. Thank you.
As a relative newbie here (joined in Nov) I found this incredibly helpful, thank you. In my first weeks here I'd stumbled upon a post that mentioned I needed to vote for witnesses with a link to do so. Not much explanation with the mention, and being so new not realizing the importance, I randomly voted.
That being said, I've now voted you and would be interested in giving you proxy. If so, are you able to remove votes and place them with more appropriate and/or beneficial witnesses?
Glad I stumbled upon your blog today...following.
If you set me as your proxy then your account will vote for the same witnesses I am voting for which you can see here: https://steemd.com/@lukestokes (scroll down on the left)
Waw , me who is just new in steem , I am lost, but I hope someday I will have 72 as makes , thank you
Hay lukestokes You are smart. Dont forget care with me ok.
Hi @lukestokes,
Off topic but I was wondering if we could have you join us in the EOS opportunity Telegram; I know you’re a big believer and I think you could be a great addition, especially since you’re thinking of being a block producer!
I’m hoping to focus on EOS a bit next week. I’ll check it out, thanks! I think I have like 80k+ EOS related telegram messages that I fell behind on.
Can’t wait to see you in there!
Hey thanks for this post I have voted for a few witness before but didnt really understand it fully I watched a video interview with @timcliff and learned a lot but this post helps explain even more things I didn't know thanks for the explanation.
I started my account last month, so the idea of voting for witnesses is a new concept for me. I started to research it last night. I gave you my 3rd witness vote! Thanks for what you do for the Steemit community!
I am wondering at which percentage we will feel that the dPOS is secure? Is it a percentage of active users or overall steem power?
Great post tnx for sharing i just upvoted check out my new post steemitalltheway
Good post
Vote me please...