The is often a lot of questions from newcomers about what Witnesses do and what their responsibility is. In this article we will cover some of the basics along with how important their role is.
At the most basic level, a Witness on Hive is a block validator. Each block, a different node validates the transaction, which is then coordinated with the other nodes.
It is a service that is very similar to miners with Bitcoin. Witness nodes defend against the double-spend situation, ensuring that any Hive or HBD transferred it actually there. At the same time, transactions on Hive can include voting, posting, and custom JSONS. All of this runs through the Witnesses.
They are the ones who run the blockchain. These nodes run the software that powers all which we do. As we can see, it is a crucial service.
We are starting to see some issues arise around the cryptocurrency world where some communities are coming to odds with the founders. One such situation is with EOS. Since I am not fully up on what took place, we will not go into the details. The general situation was the fact the community was not receiving what it was promised by Block.One. For this reason, people decided that paying the company for services not rendered was not in its best interest.
This is obviously an internal beef. It is, however, something that is likely to become commonplace. With so many founders have huge stake and Venture Capital money rolling in, it is easy to see how community interest and those entities will differ. Basically, this is the problem with much of Web 2.0. In the early days of an application, all is well. The platform is expanding in all ways. Users are benefitting. Sadly, at some point their interests are overridden, usually for the VCs who want to be paid.
Internal conflicts will have to be dealt with by communities. What happens if there is an attack from the outside?
We saw this arise with the Justin Sun situation. Some of the decisions by the Witnesses were disagreed with by sections of the community. Hence one of the reasons why there was ultimately a fork.
At the core of this was the idea of freezing funds. This is certainly a sensitive subject. Trust is one of the most vital aspect to any financial system. Blockchain operates on the idea that "code is law". What is programmed in the chain is what goes.
If block validators simply go around changing things, trust instantly evaporates. For this reason, decisions can (and should) be slow in the making. Hard forks do not occur regularly, allowing communities time to discuss what is being done.
Of course, all this goes out the window when a threat arises. Here time is lacking. Decisions have to be made, some of which go against the grain of what is described here.
So what is to be done? In my view, the protection of the blockchain is crucial. Thus, we see the Witnesses main priority. Even if undesirable, it has to be done.
One thing that became evident with the attack by Justin Sun is how crucial Hive Power really is. This is often overlooked these days, especially as more options on Hive arise. There are plenty of areas to focus our time and resources.
However, the main defense mechanism comes from having Hive powered up. This is what generates our influence with governance. It is stake weighted voting. Controlling of the Witnesses is what is sought. Obviously, the goal is to have Witnesses who are intent on defending the blockchain.
Smaller accounts end up being crucial. It does not seem like one's vote has much impact yet, as we saw, when thousands of smaller accounts start to band together, the collective impact is noticeable.
It is also where responsibility arises. We often bypass the idea of getting more Hive and powering it up. After all, of late, it acted more like a stablecoin. There are other projects we have an interest in. Certainly there is nothing wrong with supporting different communities or applications.
That said, it is crucial that everyone spend some time seeking to increase their influence on Hive. We never know when that will be required. This will have a direct impact after 30 days on one's Witness voting.
The key is to make the system as resilient as possible. There are somewhere around 100 Witness nodes operating. The top 20 are consensus with the rest serving as validators on a rotation basis. Those in consensus are the ones who are responsible for the decisions concerning the software.
Just as an aside, they are also the ones responsible for the 12% APR on Hive Backed Dollars (HBD) that are placed into savings.
Resiliency is obviously crucial when it comes to network architecture and some of the procedures of the system. However, the most crucial aspect comes from the community. It is here were resiliency is taken to an entirely different level.
There is great power in distribution and decentralizing. Those who work to increase their influence via stake are helping to spread out the power. As HP goes into more wallets of those dedicated to Hive, that is helping to create a stronger defense against future attacks.
So while it is a priority of the Witnesses to protect the blockchain, each of us has to also think in those terms. Our role in this is to amass Hive Power which feeds into the governance of the chain. Smaller accounts can play a crucial role here since they have the ability, over time, to increase their stake by large percentages. Going from 50 HP to 500 is a 10x. That gives that individual roughly 10 times more influence than before. A large account is not likely to 10x.
It is imperative that we each do what we can do to protect our "home". Here is where HP is essential. For all its attributes, one of the most vital is helping to protect the chain.
And this ultimately falls to all of us.
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