As we suck at posting updates regarding our Liotes witness node, I will use the same post for multiple announcements to cover as many things as possible... 馃檪 The most important thing is that our node is updated to the latest version, and it's ready for the upcoming hardfork of the Hive blockchain!
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We were delaying this update for multiple reasons... We had an idea to rebuild the whole node, but we were waiting to get the best possible machine out there, for a fair price... I know that some of you think that Black Friday offers are a scam (and I agree that sometimes they are), but we did get a nice offer on the current machine 2 years ago! It worked flawlessly and we are proud that we had 0 missed blocked... Until today!! 馃槺 But more about that later... (it wasn't a hardware fault!) Anyway, as the hardfork will come sooner, we had to make a move faster, so the new machine will wait for some more time...
The second reason for delaying was that our version of the software hadn't been updated for months... As we aren't skilled coders, we had to wait for the guy who maintains the specific script to make an update... Of course, that's not a sustainable way to do the "Hive witnessing" as we should upgrade to the new version as soon as possible, to avoid possible issues, and incompatibilities... Because of that, we have decided to change the script, and instead of doing the HIAB (Hive-In-A-Box) solution, we went with the Docker version created by 
Screenshot from Liotes Discord
Another reason to change the script was that we needed to switch to another method of storing the blockchain... While some were joking in the Liotes discord on our account, the process of syncing the chain isn't as fast as you would think... But great progress has been made regarding that... In the past, it would take between 3-4 days (for our machine, it was like that), and today, it took a bit more than 16 hours (my first assumption was that it would take over 24 hours)!
If you are thinking about running a Hive witness node, but you are afraid that you aren't skilled enough to do it, don't worry anymore! The script and the setup process are straightforward, and almost anyone can complete them! A very easy tutorial is available here.
Speaking of which... If you don't want to miss blocks, remember to restart the script after updating your configuration file! Someone did that (me 馃槂), and now we have that ugly number 1 in the column of missed blocks! It's not a big deal, but it was nice to brag about having 0 after running a node for almost 2 years! 馃榾
The biggest advantage of this solution is that the future hived updates should be easy to perform... A few clicks and voila! Also, I would like to thank
That would be all for this short update! Fingers crossed that the upcoming hardfork passes well, and don't hesitate to run your Hive witness node! As it's very simple to do, there are no valid excuses not to do it!
Thanks for supporting Liotes Hive Witness!
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