Witness Update: 0.19.11 and 0.2 Account Creation Fee

in #witness-category • 6 years ago

I wanted to do a quick witness update to let you know I've been running on 0.19.11 since August 7th. Although I updated to 0.19.10 pretty early on, I noticed an issue which caused me to miss a handful blocks. It was fixed in 0.19.11 and after reviewing the code and running it on my seed node, I went ahead and updated my producer to it, while updating my backup to 0.19.6 in case there are any unforeseen issues.

There's also been some talk among witnesses about increasing the account creation fee from 0.1 to 0.2 which means from 3 STEEM to 6 STEEM. I'm going to go ahead and make this change to my witness parameters because with the cryptocurrency markets down and STEEM below $1 at the moment, I wouldn't want someone to see the Steem blockchain as a target and easily spam it with new account creations. Nothing on a blockchain can be free, so we should consider what value we think each Steem account is worth. Hard Fork 20 will pave the way for many account creation changes, but it's still a ways off. If you run an account creation service and the 0.2 value is a problem for you, please reach out to me so we can discuss it.

I also want to mention I'm changing up my witness votes just a bit. I know many accounts use me as their proxy, and I'm grateful for that trust. It's a big responsibility to be a proxy for other accounts, so I think it's important to be transparent about my thinking regarding who I vote for as a witness. I've decided to change some of my votes because currently most of who I vote for are already in the top 20. It wasn't always that way, I'm proud to say, but I think many of the people I've been voting for have demonstrated their value to the blockchain and have risen up in the ranks as others have recognized that value also. Now that they are securely positioned, I want to change things up a bit. I'm deciding to remove some votes for the very top-ranked witnesses so I can put those votes on some lower ranked witnesses to show my support and hopefully encouraged them to continue adding value to the blockchain. Specifically, I'm going to remove votes for the top three which is @gtg, @jesta, and @roelandp. Since all top 20 witnesses get paid the same, I think this is safe to do and will not risk the pay of these excellent witnesses for the great value they bring to Steem. Removing my vote in no way suggests I don't support them. On the contrary, I think they are providing great value and if they ever rank lower than what I think is proper, I will adjust my votes accordingly to ensure they remain top witnesses.

I should also mention I had a bit of drama recently with my witness nodes while I was traveling to speak at Discon about DPOS systems. I missed a block and Conductor faithfully moved me over to my backup. Unfortunately, while traveling, I missed another block in the middle of the night which caused my witness to get disabled. My notification script currently doesn't send additional notifications if one has already been sent, so I didn't get a notification about the issue due to a previous notification. I plan to update my notification script tomorrow to ensure I keep getting notified, even if an existing notification has already been sent.

Thanks for reading and for caring about the Steem blockchain (not to be confused with Steemit.com). Will I see you in Poland for Steemfest 3?

As of this post, I'm currently position 11!

If you want to know more about what witnesses do check out:

You can read my witness announcement post here:

My previous witness updates:

I only post witness updates when I have something worth sharing, but I'm always available if you have a question or concern. I can be reached on Discord, Telegram, or Rocketchat.

Luke Stokes is a father, husband, programmer, STEEM witness, DAC launcher, and voluntaryist who wants to help create a world we all want to live in. Learn about cryptocurrency at UnderstandingBlockchainFreedom.com

I'm a Witness! Please vote for @lukestokes.mhth

#witness-update
6 years ago in #witness-category by
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     6 years ago 

    I think it is fine to push new account fee to 6 Steem. There is always the free account option, which is very easy to go through, just need some patience. So, for the ones wishing a fresh new account fast fast fast... could even be 10 Steem. That would be fine if the free option keeps existing in parallel . (my humble opinion) . And congrats for updating so fast to incorporate hard fork 20. You have my witnesses vote.
    p.w

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     6 years ago (edited)

    I am a bit worried about the increased fees for the account creation. Although I understand your reasoning for doing so as the price of steem is low and potential spam accounts would be cheap to create. On the other hand their are a few excellent people that I know who are working tirelessly to get people onboard using their personal money. One such guy is @nathanmars.

    My question would be that, is this change permanent or could (or even a possibility of) it be reversed back once the prices are back to higher levels.

    Thanks for being an awesome witness!

    PS: I am living in Poland these days, so there is a good chance that we might meet :-)

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       6 years ago 

      Yes, it's a configuration change that witnesses can make at anytime. Also, steemit.com is still creating accounts for free for people, so I don't see too much of a problem creating accounts. But yeah, if @nathanmars has concerns, have them reach out to me. As of right now, consensus is still 0.1 as changes require consensus of 2/3 + 1 witnesses.

      You going to Steemfest3?

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         6 years ago 

        Thanks! Good to know.

        Oh yes I'l be there. Although I am in Warsaw but Krakow is not that far :-)

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           6 years ago (edited)

          Trying to preventing spam by using "market mechanics" i.e. price is what most other blockchains are doing by exacting a "transaction fee". The downside of it is that it discourages usage outright.

          Steem's philosophy used to be different - free transactions, free accounts. To prevent spam, the notion of "bandwidth " is used at transaction level.

          At account creation level in turn, I believe using "market mechanisms" is the wrong approach. A better approach was the one which Steemit used to use and many free sites continue to use- a minimal KYC - like requiring a valid phone number / e-mail address, selfie, etc. This is a "social mechanism" to prevent bad behavior and it works. The personal data collected needs not be strored and used any longer than necessary to perform this "social verification" and could be erased afterwards (after some hashes have been saved to prevent re-use).

          Steemit is "social blockchain " - I think it's worth reflecting what the right mix between "market mechanisms" and "social mechanisms" is whenever effecting configuration changes.

          On a different topic, I would be grateful if you'd take some time to consider whether @lux-witness is worth of your support. @lux-witness is @pstaiano and myself and I would be honoured to know what you think about our work, among which the EFTG project, the first corporate project using (a clone of) the steem blockchain and one which is opening the eyes of the European regulators at the marvel of the DPOS consensus, of the steem blockchain and of the new economic paradigm it makes possible - as brilliantly illustrated by @utopian-io.

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             6 years ago 

            Keep up the good work :)

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               6 years ago 

              There's also been some talk among witnesses about increasing the account creation fee from 0.1 to 0.2 which means from 3 STEEM to 6 STEEM. I'm going to go ahead and make this change to my witness parameters because with the cryptocurrency markets down and STEEM below $1 at the moment, I wouldn't want someone to see the Steem blockchain as a target and easily spam it with new account creations.

              Usually more accounts are created when Steem is at a higher price since people see a bigger chance of making money through posting so I actually see the blockchain be less spammed with account creation when Steem is at 1$.
              However some accounts that are already in Steem may consider in creating secondary accounts during this time.
              It is a tough call to make since someone might take advantage as said in the post by creating spam accounts.
              For the moment the @humanheart witness will remain with a 0.1 fee even though there are strong incentives in changing it to 0.2
              All rewards from this comment will go to charity

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                 6 years ago 

                I think the lesser witnesses could use more support. I've spread my votes across the board, mostly according to what work I see them doing. We do value you guys and we need everyone to use their votes.

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                   6 years ago 

                  great to see more top witnesses getting behind the 0.2 creation fee at the moment.

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