gtg (as in Gandalf the Grey) was born in block 2794856 at 2016-06-30 17:22:21 (UTC) by Proof of Work and started generating blocks as a miner-witness, two weeks later also as a runner-up witness.

I failed to sign 42 blocks on time.

I know stuff, I do things.

Yes, this witness log will be a bit different (see the bottom of the page for the usual boring update)

^{Full HD video rendered exclusively for my witness updates}

What do I do as a witness?

Not much^(*) .
I look after the security and reliability of the Steem platform.
I keep an eye on steem development.
I sign blocks.
That’s what witnesses do.

What I do as a Steem user?

Whatever I can.

I’m not sure if you understand the difference, so let me tell you about the future and what the “D” in DPoS means.

Future

At the time I’m writing this post, STEEM is worth almost $3.141592…
Some people are happy that this is way more than $0.01, others are crying that it’s far from $6.
Still others can’t wait to see it rise to $10.

None of these things actually matter at this point. Prices are determined mostly by those who have no idea about Steem as a platform, and even if they did, that wouldn’t change the fact that Steem is still far from what it will be in the future.

And it is going to be AWESOME thanks to YOU!

(Or maybe not, and that will be your fault, too!)

D stands for Decentralized.

/ˌdiːˈsentrəlaɪzd/
used to describe organizations or their activities which are not controlled from one central place, but happen in many different places:
The management structure is highly decentralized.
decentralized decision-making
^{- Cambridge Dictionary}

We, the steemians

The future of the platform is in your hands. It depends on what you will do or neglect to do.
If you think about a Steem-related issue, and your thoughts start with: They should… you are missing the point.
It’s we should, or else we are doomed.
Of course, we have different roles but our goal is pretty much the same.

What can YOU do?

More or less what I do (except for boring witness suff ;-) ):

• Create high quality, original content.
  If you can.
  If you suck are bad at creating content, don’t worry. Most users are no Shakespeares or Matejkos. Moving here from FaceBoo!^(tm) won’t automatically earn you the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• Curate (vote for) high quality, original content
  Even the best content is worthless if no one notices it.
• Vote for what you really like.
  Follow successful professional curators. If you don't know any, take a look at @curie or @ocd.
• Support science (it’s brought us where we are)
  #SteemSTEM
• Support art
  It sounds good, it looks good. Kings and queens did that.
  #iTalent
• Support local, non-English communities
  Start with the languages you know (pl: Tygodnik Kuratorski)
  Help those whose language you’ve always wanted to learn ( #japanese, Kudos for recently added translation!)
  And those who’re talking about something and you have no idea what that is, but you know they are responsible curators who will help you vote for the most valuable content ( #fr, shout-out to @roxane)
• Vote for witnesses
  I’ve been writing about that over and over again, and that’s because it is important.
  I’ll write more about that soon in a vote for witnesses rant.

  When you elect a clown, you can expect a circus

• If you are a user of an exchange
  • that doesn’t support Steem - open a support ticket and ask them to list STEEM
    (yes it’s that simple.. If hundreds of users do that)
  • that supports Steem - pay attention if it is operational.
    When they have issues with their wallet, open a support ticket and complain.
    Witnesses and developers on Steem are more than happy to help
• Engage with the community
  https://steem.chat
  • Do not use chat channels as a link drop boxes.
    Even channels that are for post promotion shouldn’t be treated as places where you only post links and ignore what other users write.
    Otherwise no one will bother to look there, because everyone will be just pasting links mindlessly.
• Treat your fellow Steemian as you would like to be treated
• Power up!
• Steem On!

If you don't know how to behave, be on your best behavior

OK, let’s move on to the quick, boring update

Price feeds

Please pay attention to your price feeds. Poloniex is still out of the equation because of recurring issues with their wallet. I keep my fingers crossed for their speedy^(*) recovery.

^(*) ( ^LoLLoL^LoL_LoLLoL )

API endpoint

I’ve been asked (again) to extend the life of the original non-appbase endpoint (https://gtg.steem.house:8090) until May.
Since there’s a variety of other public nodes that you can choose from, I’m OK with that.

Ongoing tests with the new endpoint are really promising.

Steem.chat

Upgrades, bug fixing, cleaning, more upgrades, bug fixing because of upgrades.

Userbase

We will soon have one million users!

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^{If you believe I can be of value to Steem, please vote for me (gtg) as a witness on Steemit's Witnesses List or set (gtg) as a proxy that will vote for witnesses for you.
Your vote does matter!
You can contact me directly on steem.chat, as Gandalf}