I would have loved to be a witness for Steem, then Hive, but I have realized a long time ago that it was expensive if you were not one of the top witnesses and that it was too much work for my taste.
When I learned recently that Hive Engine was going to have witnesses, I thought that it was my chance to be a witness.
I first saw a post by @rishi556 that explained how to become a Hive Engine witness, but I thought it was not detailed enough for me.
Then, I saw this post Step by Step Guide to setup Hive Engine Witness from scratch by Bala (@bala41288) that looks very detailed.
I knew of @bala41288 from the Rising Star Game discord forum, and I knew that he pays attention to details. So, I decided to follow his guide.
Although Bala recommends using a server that costs US$10 per month, I was not going to do that.
I have here a small computer that I bought 2 years ago to play a Windows game that I stopped playing several months ago. It has 4 cores, 8 GB of memory, and a disk of 1 TB. This is better than what Bala recommends: 4 cores, 2 GB of memory, and 35 GB of disk.
So, the first thing was to install Linux. As I have been using Ubuntu as my prime OS for years, I downloaded Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and tried to install it.
First, I made a USB stick, but I was unable to boot from the USB.
Next, I made a DVD. I was able to boot from the DVD. I made 3 attempts to install Linux along with Windows, but each time I rebooted the computer, I ended up in Windows, with no possibility of starting Linux.
So, I finally installed Linux alone, wiping out the Windows installation, and it worked the first time.
I had spent the better part of a day installing Linux and it was late afternoon when I started following BALA's guide to the letter. It worked perfectly.
Late at night, the software started to catch up with all the blocks of Hive Engine. And when I got up the next day, I was able to register as a witness!
Initially, I was approved with a weight of 20,330 staked WORKERBEE. I have no idea who approved me, as I cannot find any place that displays who is approving whom.
As you can see above, the first number is the "Approval Weight" and it is now around 4,546.
I have not missed any block so far, and at the time when I captured the picture above, I had signed 34 rounds, in less than 24 hours.
Even if I don't get any reward and I am now the 24th witness, after having been the 16th for several hours, I am very happy to be a witness and to contribute to the decentralization of Hive Engine.
If you have WORKERBEE coins staked in your Hive Engine, please consider to approved my witness on https://tribaldex.com/witnesses. Thank you in advance.