As I already mentioned not too long ago, there's a lot to know about witnesses and always learning if you want to stay up to date.
Today I finished consuming all my 30 witness votes. This means that to vote for another witness, one has to go off my list (even temporary, until I have another empty slot).
One criteria I use when deciding whether to keep a witness on my list or not is to see some updates from them, on any of the various channels I follow. With a very few exceptions, where I know those witnesses are doing a great job for the blockchain but they don't like to post anything, if there's been a long time without any communication, my vote is gone. That's especially crucial for newer witnesses who need to affirm themselves and grow.
A different criteria involves balance. I vote different witnesses for different areas of their expertise or contribution, and if I feel at some point I need to shift or re-shift balance in a certain direction, I will.
And another criteria which becomes even more important when Steem and SBD prices are low is the economical incentive one.
This is what I want to insist on today.
Most if not all of the witnesses from the Top 20 are top-notch. What probably fluctuates and we should be careful about that, is their level of involvement.
Top 20 witnesses, if you don't know, make the most witness rewards, because each of them is assigned to generate a new block every 3 seconds (and is rewarded for every generated block).
Most of them also have high expenses with their servers and not many other witnesses would be able to immediately switch to a Top 20 witness shoes without big technical issues.
However, given they are all assigned the same number of blocks every day, it doesn't really matter if they are number 1 or number 17 in the top. They make the same amount of rewards.
The equation changes radically from the witness number 21 down. That's because they are selected to produce a block based on the amount of MVESTS voting for them, the more MVESTS the more blocks to produce (or in simple terms the higher in the rankings, but below Top 20, the more blocks the witness produces).
Obviously, any of the witnesses outside Top 20 won't produce as many blocks as those in Top 20, that's why everyone wants to get to Top 20. But, knowing the above it is important if a witness is 27th or 52nd for its witness rewards.
So, if you haven't chosen all 30 of your witnesses, and you find good witnesses outside Top 20, vote for them! Especially now when people are complaining about the high maintenance costs and fees, while Steem and SBD prices are low. That doesn't mean to vote for anybody though, it is important to choose witnesses who do good things for the Steem blockchain!
If you already voted for all 30 witnesses as I did, you can do as I will. I will pick (in time) promising witnesses outside Top 20 who seem involved long-term, and vote for them, one by one. To clear each necessary vote, I will unvote one witness from Top 20. That in no way means I no longer support the Top 20 witness which I'll unvote. I simply need the slot for someone who needs it more than he/she does at the time.
What do you think? Does this make sense to you?
Voting and auditing the witness is one of the most important duties we have as steemians.
Good post.
Couldn't agree more, I wish more would pay attention to the witnesses they vote for (or at least vote, to go passed step 1).
I didn't know this thing about the top 20. Thank you for clarifying that! Personally I think that it is not clearly shown that every user should vote for witnesses. I learned about it week after week by reading posts like yours. But I think it should be better advertised on Steemit.
Yes, I agree! I've seen proposals coming from witnesses themselves to make their #witness-category a special tag in steemit, so that people can easily read witnesses' updates.
I still have some open on my witness list. I will be getting it filled soon! The votes I have left will be for some lower rank witness that are helping Steemit to be a better platform.
That's a good strategy! But we have to keep an eye on both sides, because Top 20 witnesses are there for a reason in most cases.
This is an interesting strategy that I like. It is awesome to support witnesses outside of top 20 to let others know they are there. To 20 witnesses receive a lot of attention due to their ranking and it is awesome that you want to recognize promising witnesses outside of the top 20! I need to learn more myself of the witnesses out there and get my votes up to 30.
Top 20 witnesses are important and usually their position there is hard earned. However, they have no economic incentive to be on position 1, 7 or 15, other than their personal reputation as witnesses.
While witnesses outside Top 20 earn more witness rewards the more votes (more MVESTS) they get. Can be only a temporary strategy we use to help them during these tough times with these low Steem and SBD prices, because they still have server bills to pay.
Afterwards, we'll see who still deserves to secure our vote.
I found the read interesting! It’s important we have great leadership in our witnesses. What happens after the top 20 provokes curiosity :) upvoted!
Yes, top 20 witnesses are very much needed for the stability of the blockchain (well, every once in a while it doesn't hurt if someone else makes it to the top). From Top 50 or even Top 100 comes the new blood and potentially the next in line to join the Top 20, if they stick with it and improve.
Congratulations! This post has been upvoted from the communal account, @minnowsupport, by gadrian from the Minnow Support Project. It's a witness project run by aggroed, ausbitbank, teamsteem, someguy123, neoxian, followbtcnews, and netuoso. The goal is to help Steemit grow by supporting Minnows. Please find us at the Peace, Abundance, and Liberty Network (PALnet) Discord Channel. It's a completely public and open space to all members of the Steemit community who voluntarily choose to be there.
If you would like to delegate to the Minnow Support Project you can do so by clicking on the following links: 50SP, 100SP, 250SP, 500SP, 1000SP, 5000SP.
Be sure to leave at least 50SP undelegated on your account.