In DPoS governance of Hive Blockchain, the top 21 witnesses are responsible for securing the network. They are called consensus witnesses. For introducing a new rule or amending an existing rule in the Blockchain, at least 17 out of the top 21 witnesses have to agree. This is how the decentralized DPoS governance works in Hive Blockchain. These witnesses are elected by the community through stake-weighted voting. In simple words, the users of the community delegate their power to the top 21 witnesses(consensus witnesses).
A user in Hive can vote up to 30 witnesses. Every user of the community should actively participate in decentralized governance. Because by doing so, you have a say and you are also building the future of this community collectively.
So there are two ways:-
- Either you vote directly to your favorite witness.
- Or set a proxy, so that someone else on behalf of you can vote for the witnesses.
As the discussion is on "proxy", we must know more about "why and under what circumstances one should set proxy for witnesses voting".
Sometimes the average users, especially the minnows level or below feel that their HP is much lower to have an impact/influence in witness voting and they don't partake in the witness voting process. Sometimes they have no idea what they are doing and randomly vote anyone just for the sake of participation in the witness voting. But that could result in catastrophic effect to the decentralized network if unknowingly you are voting for a witness and electing him to the top 21 who does not want a decentralized effect of the network or maybe a witness with malicious intention.
So if you 'don't want to' or 'don't have time' to know the witness well enough to vote as the right candidate for the top 21 witnesses, then you have a second option, that is "Setting a Proxy".
We can say like "I have no idea or I don't have time or I don't know much about how to choose a right witness for the decentralized effect of the network-- therefore I am setting a proxy, and the proxy will vote on my behalf".
Now it feels like the "proxy" knows better than me in choosing the right witness to the top 21.
A user always has the liberty and flexibility to set or remove a "proxy".
Who should be the ideal proxy
You are setting a "proxy", because either you don't have time or don't have much idea. Then at least you should know the proxy well enough or find a better proxy in the community.
Before setting a proxy, make sure he believes in the decentralized ethos of the community or you can do little social engineering by visiting his blog page, posts, replies, etc to know him better.
Generally, those who have already invested a lot in Hive, very active in the community, active curation engagement, developers, etc are considered as good proxies. Most of the times they happen to be in touch with the witness community, so they know better about a witness.
An ideal proxy must also communicate properly, from time to time must post or give an update on the witness voting. A good proxy must also check and balance by removing votes from the inactive witnesses and malicious witnesses.
Set a Proxy
Active key authority is required for setting a "Proxy".
Head over to https://wallet.hive.blog/~witnesses
Scroll it down to the bottom of the page and then enter the "username" you want to set as "proxy", then finally click on "Set Proxy".
You can clear "proxy" any moment you want.
Thank you.
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