Not that long ago I saw the @oracles account show up in my feed. I think it was @InquiringTimes who had retweeted it.
Of course, my initial interest was peeked as soon as I saw oracles which immediately reminded me of Ned’s post about SMT oracles but soon things would get better even.
Better because @oracles was not related to the SMT Oracles but to another concept right down my alley: transparency (and also ethics, integrity).
Daniel Avilov on Unsplash
Oracles’ introduction post, Oracles - A Steemian Based Witnessing in the Witness Group - Dead Witnesses” and..., introduced the concept and creation of a new community which aims to increase the number of Steemians who have voted for witnesses, all while providing a better insight in the world of witnesses.
While the project is still in very early stages, mostly a Discord community right now, the idea behind Oracles is to provide Steemians with more information about what witnesses do, specifically what each witness does.
As most active Steemians know, witnesses provide the backbone to the Steem ecosystem by hosting the decentralised blockchain. In return, each witness is rewarded daily with Steem. While this amount for most isn’t sufficient to pay the server costs, the Top 20 witnesses produce many more blocks than other witnesses, which means that the rewards they earn are more significant.
As everyone can imagine, especially given the fact that those Top 20 witnesses also form our Governance body, this politicises the Steem blockchain and thus it is important that every Steemian knows what each witness does, their track record, and possibly even an insight in thinking, ideology, and vision.
Not that long ago we had #WitnessMinerGate which I posted about here. In that post I also referred to the importance of witnesses and holding them accountable because within the setup of the Steem blockchain, the Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPOS) makes all decisions about the blockchain a democratic process, in which the witnesses represent all Steemians.
As I wrote in the #WitnessMinerGate post:
This means that Steem witnesses need to, and do, decide over the future of the Steem blockchain, as a democracy. As such we, Steemians, need to be able to blindly trust witnesses, especially because this is an economy and one which always more people depend on.
Because many witnesses often rally their Steemian fans for their vote it is important that all Steemians are aware about what witnesses do. Aware beyond the marketing pitch, beyond the campaigning for votes.
@oracles aims to provide more insight to this.
Because it matters that the Steem ecosystem, and thus every Steemian, benefits governance by ethical witnesses, I have joined the oracles community and so should you.
Not only should unethical witnesses, operating in a grey area, be held accountable, but we Steemiansthe future of the Steem blockchain depends on the top 20 witnesses.
And that matters. To you, to me, to everyone. Because within the DPOS setup of the Steem blockchain we have to constantly weigh our vote. Our position. Our own ethics.
DPOS relies on witnesses, or delegates, who represent the users of the blockchain and are elected by them. These witnesses can jointly alter all network parameters from transaction size to block interval. [Source: @mooncryption]
Are we pro or con upvote bots?
Do we think downvotes hurt the community?
Do we want to see even more #shitposts?
Do we want to see short-term focused witnesses?
Should we popularise witnesses who advocate raping the rewards pool maximising curation benefits from the rewards pool and thus long term undermine the health of the pool?
Should we allow witnesses to earn from automated shitposts?
Does somebody’s involvement as witness allow to get away with anything?
The answer to all of which is, of course, a resounding NO.
Just like @shello’s #StopShitPosts and aim for excellence initiative, let’s all also #StopShitWitnesses and aim for the best possible Governance of the Steem blockchain.
The @oracles project is still in its earliest stages and can use any help. Both help from contributing members as well as more visibility. Because accountable, ethical and transparent witnesses is our right.
Because Steemians deserve but the best Governance body.
Just like I did, you too should join the @oracles community. Join us in the oracles Discord community today.