What an amazing few months it's been! With all the news that has come out between our last post and now, it's never been a more promising time to be a Steemian.

We've been hard at work on- and off-chain since our last update, making sure everything's humming along on the block production front, keeping up with the upgrades, reviewing code, and working on our projects including SteemTipper and Steem.Chat. In our last post, we talked about some big upgrades done to our hardware, our goals and timelines for this year, and our ongoing commitments to you.

Combine all this with the news about Steemfest3, hardforks 20:Velocity and 21: Smart Media Tokens, and it's a pretty solid time for a look at all of the things that have happened and what to look forward to.

Servers are here to serve:

• All witness nodes have been upgraded to v0.19.12

  • Our main witness node is backed by additional failover nodes in separate data centers for maximum redundancy and reliability. Each is running (DEDI-DE) 64GB DDR3 RAM, 20TB BW @ 1gbps network. They've been stellar thus far, and we've had excellent luck since upgrading through all new versions released since our last update. We didn't experience any intermittent block misses, which have been happening here and there on some of the previous versions as part of the leadup to the latest.
  • v0.19.12 is most notable for being the newest stable version supporting unlimited editing. When a majority of block producers have moved to this version, STEEM platforms will be able to enable the editing option through the UI and have it work consistently for everyone. We know many users are very excited for this feature!
    
    

• The MinnowSupport Full Public RPC Node has been kicked into overdrive, running AppBase v0.19.12, RocksDB enabled, and a Jussi endpoint.

  • We manage operations and split the cost of this RPC node with MinnowSupport Project leadership, at https://steemd.minnowsupportproject.org. It's currently running (DEDI-DE) 512GB DDR4 RAM, 50TB BW @ 1gbps network. It's now also been upgraded into the best resource we can make it, which is great news, and has been thanks in part to a lot of teamwork. @Drakos is an MSP leadership member, and has been dedicating himself to server development tirelessly over the past year. We've hired him on to work on improving the MinnowSupport RPC to become an even better option for those looking for alternative endpoints. In the process of getting the current full public RPC node upgraded to v0.19.12, @TheMarkyMark's grueling series of stress tests (a big thanks for these!) were used as a benchmark to make sure the shared MinnowSupport node is performing at max. By putting heads together, we're now able to offer an even more excellent public resource, which is really exciting, and paves the way for Steem scalability.

  • A quick overview of AppBase:

    Appbase provides many benefits, including multithreading and plugin modularity. This improves Steem's scalability with parallel execution. For many of you, technical details beyond "this is designed to architect much better performance and support growth" probably won't be interesting, but here are some official links to review if you'd like to learn more:
    https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitblog/steem-19-10-officially-released-appbase-rocksdb-unlimited-content-editing-and-more
    https://steemit.com/steem/@steemitdev/appbase-the-next-step-forward-for-the-steem-blockchain-let-the-testing-begin

  • A quick overview of RocksDB:

    Steemit Inc has updated the account history plugin to use RocksDB, a fast-on-disk data store with an advanced caching layer. This greatly boosts the efficiency of the Steem blockchain and will help resource needs come down, which is pretty important: right now, the account history plugin is one of the most used, and one of the most resource intensive. RocksDB helps by reducing the RAM requirements for nodes while also improving replay time, and by decreasing the amount of disk space needed. For a better understanding of what this means, consider that the MinnowSupport RPC RAM usage is now down to 235GB. That's almost half as much as the non-AppBase version previously! This has some pretty huge implications for staying on top of scalability.

  • A quick overview of Jussi:

    Jussi is custom built caching layer for steemd. It is also a JSON proxy that translates legacy queries to the new Steem API format. If you're a developer and you're worried, it's okay — you can leave your code as it is and let Jussi take care of the translations for you. It's recommended that if you can, to update your code to enable the new API calls. Here's an example with the latest steem-js:

var steem = require('steem');
steem.api.setOptions({ useAppbaseApi: true, url:       'https://steemd.minnowsupportproject.org' });

Application developers should note that the RPC node won't be supporting websockets anymore, so make sure you're using http/jsonrpc calls instead.

• Our seed node has been upgraded to v0.19.12

  • Located at seed.followbtcnews.com:2001, our 64GB seed is now running on the newest version. Seed nodes are needed for witness servers to recieve blocks to sign, and propagate blocks through the network. While you don't hear about them as much since they aren't as glamorous, they're there, chugging along in the background and keeping the chain moving.
    
    

Third quarter project goals on track, and exciting tidbits:

• The next big integration for SteemTipper is coming very 🔜™.

  • We're stoked to be on the cusp of expanding the service to new platforms. We've been taking the time to get the login system just right to make sure that multiple accounts will properly integrate directly with your existing SteemTipper balance. Keep your eyes peeled for this announcment shortly.
  • @crimsonclad will be heading to Steemfest3 with our team. With all the incredible news this year, we're looking forward to sponsoring some Steemians to check out the premiere Steem event in Poland! We'll be releasing an update soon discussing how to be considered as one of the sponsorees. We want to see you there!
    
    

Finishing with our customary thank you note:

Many of you know us from community spaces. While we're here making posts and updates when we can, and our numbers are there and visible on all of the witness lists, you probably have had some experiences with us one on one in places like Discord or Steem.Chat. This won't change. While our priorities remain first and foremost to run the reliable, rocksteady servers to keep this blockchain healthy and decentralized as is the job of each witness, we know how important communication is between all levels of user, investor, developer and consumer here. And hell, between the friends and connections we've made all over the world, and the experiences we've gained watching this chain grow, it's been fun.

If you've been thinking of voting or need to know more, I really encourage you to reach out. This is your chain, and your vote is important. While I won't ask you blindly to vote for us, I definitely do encourage to you get out there and meet and learn about witnesses. Make each vote you make reflect your changing experience here on the platform. There are some exciting things coming down the pipe.

Until next time,

Thanks for everything. Get hold of myself or @crimsonclad anywhere, anytime, should you need us.

Jeff, @followbtcnews witness

I'm Jeff, and I'm @followbtcnews.
I'm a top 20 witness, along with my project partner @crimsonclad. Feel free to reach out to us on Steem.chat or Discord any time! If we haven't earned your vote yet, please take some time to look at Steemtipperand other work we have done. We hope you decide to place a witness vote for followbtcnews by clicking here