Hi Steemian friends! :)

This is my Witness Update, going through all the details about my Witness adventure, and for those of you who don't know me yet, here are some photos in my favorite playground: my music studio! :)

I am a life long Software Developer, working on Blockchain for last years on several projects, but I am also a DJ and Electronic Music Producer, my alter-ego "Kolatz" that you can browse for if interested... :)

I am also the creator of DSound, which has grown so much this year, like form 500+ to 3000+ users or from 20+ to 700+ uploads a day, and quality wise, as subjective as it is, the growth from my perspective is immense! :)

If you got curious about DSound, please check it out: https://dsound.audio

Update #2

So far I am just a few months online with my Steem nodes, but I am so proud to have already 187 fellow Steemians that believe in me and have voted me as a witness! Thank you guys for making me reach #42 place on the Witness rank!!!

Yes, now I am on the top 50 Steem Witnesses list. I am so proud of this, but aware of the responsibility it represents and willing to deliver stability on the network, my commitment on my Steem blockchain related projects and, most of all, to bring Music enthusiasts, Artists and Portuguese speaking people to our favorite blockchain. :)

My biggest supporters in this journey are:

@pumpkin
@roadscape
@jerrybanfield
@ekitcho
@blockchained
@cob
@noisy
@dtube
@minnowsupport
@bleepcoin
@dan-atstarlite
@d-pend
@steevc
@marketingmonk
@soundlegion
@zombee
@master-set
@elmetro
@jaybird
@sircork
@lyndsaybowes

Thanks so much guys! I'll do my best for the community and to make you proud of your vote in me...

Technical Infrastructure

Related to technical stuff, my servers are rocking! I just upgraded them to double the SSD space, as it was already getting quite constrained due to the huge growth of our user base.

Also my Seed node had some problem in the shared memory file and I had to replay it, so it had a few hours of downtime today, but will be soon back online.

My dedicated server boxes are now with the following specs. All boxes are behind firewalls, IDS and power redundancy systems. The server characteristics are subject to upgrade or revision as needed.

Witness node	Dedicated Server
CPU	Intel i5 4x core 2.5 GHz
RAM	32GB RAM DDR4
Disks	256GB SSD
Connection	Gigabit over optical fiber backbone
Power	Redundant + UPS
Location	EU - Portugal

---

Backup node	Dedicated Server
CPU	Intel i5 4x core 2.5 GHz
RAM	32GB RAM DDR4
Disks	256GB SSD
Connection	Gigabit over optical fiber backbone
Power	Redundant + UPS
Location	EU - Portugal

---

Seed node	Dedicated Server
host:port	seed.steem.prcolaco.com:2001
CPU	Intel i5 4x core 2.9 GHz
RAM	32GB RAM DDR3
Disks	256GB SSD
Connection	Gigabit over optical fiber backbone
Power	Redundant + UPS
Location	EU - Portugal

---

What I am working on

I am currently finishing a DSound major update, that will be released soon, and I am also working on some scripting for witness related stuff, that I'll share with fellow witnesses when ready and tested, of course.

On the community side, plenty of work to do and arrangements to fulfill the demand of a 3000+ community that is growing by the hour, so I am recruiting people to help on the social media side and to keep DSound Discord healthy while growing, as I am not able to do all this myself... So expect more news on a DSound post soon! :)

Conclusion

My first months as a Steem Witness went really well. My servers were rock solid and I managed to perform my first upgrade of all servers without any missed blocks, so I continue proud of my 0 missed blocks accounting! :)

My involvement with the community continued to grow. The stake of Steem I already hold, as well as what will come from witnessing, will be invested in the ecosystem, and the remaining will be vested as I already do, as I never powered down.

I want to witness Steem growth and success, so count on me to help make it happen! :)

And If you trust me and approve what I do in the Steem ecosystem, please give me your Witness vote to help me continue...

You can vote for me as a Steem Witness here:
https://steemit.com/~witnesses

or if you cannot find me on the top 50 anymore (I hope you do, but votes come and go...)

or via cli_wallet with the command:
>>> vote_for_witness youraccount prc true true