I found this nifty graphic with a quick google search, it is from @doktormuslem who sadly seems to have taken a break - but did state the graphic was free to download and use. I've followed just in case they find the way home to Hive.
As the title suggests this is a long overdue Witness Update, regular followers of my blog will know that work pressure combined with my just getting generally older and slower have reduced my in the face activity - it doesn't mean I'm not doing things - just they are more silently happening in the background. My weekly voting mostly centers around my #sublimesunday tag posters, I do follow and vote on a diverse range of accounts and also support many with delegations, along with delegating to community accounts. (Delegated Hive Power is like a loan, you still own it but you do not receive the curation rewards from it - the person receiving the delegation gains the curation rewards and also has more resource credits free allowing them to create more transactions)
What a Witness does is quite hard to explain, the above screen grab from my full api hived server shows multiple blocks from the blockchain - each has varying transactions and is signed by a different Witness. The top twenty Witnesses get the majority of blocks to sign, with 21+ plus making up a back up round in order - the higher you are up the table the more blocks you sign. You can view Witnesses at https://peakd.com/me/witnesses or https://wallet.hive.blog/~witnesses and also choose to vote for them. When you vote for a Witness your staked Hive Power is added to all the other voters Hive Power and decides where in the table they rank.
Because every Witness has to have a server with the entire blockchain block log on, the more Witnesses Hive has the better - it provides support, stability and ensures that all that data (500gb right now) is safe in servers located all over the world. As of writing today Hive has 140 active Witnesses - which is an incredible amount really - and it is not cheap to run the servers needed so always consider to look down the bottom of the table to throw in a vote instead of staring at the top. If you can not decide who to vote for Witness - the best way really is to go through the blog of the Witness you might vote - see how active they are, what they do - what value you think they might bring to the Hive Blockchain.
For my own @c0ff33a Witness I run in total 5 separate servers - which I will break down below into their respective roles.
The most powerful server I run has 96gb of Ram and runs the Full API hived, this is required to run the Hivemind instance which when combined make up my full node https://api.c0ff33a.uk - it has to provide on demand far more transactional and account data then a standard Witness instance of Hived would need and achieves this by using more ram - and also disk database storage which means on top of the current block log size of 500gb, an extra 600gb of storage is used for the database.
To complete my full api node I run a server that just has Hivemind on it - this back end database comprises of two process - a server process which accepts requests for data it stores and finds the information - and a sync process that connects to the Full API hived and requests the data for every block produced which it stores into the database.
That is Hivemind in a snapshot, but do not be fooled it changes every few seconds.
Hivemind does not need so much Ram, but because the process is read and write intensive I found it far better to run on it's own server.
Hivemind is using around 522gb of storage, as you should expect every day posts are added, votes, follows, unfollows, splinterlands transactions - everything that happens on the blockchain increases the block size and ultimately the size of both the block log and hivemind database.
https://api.c0ff33a.uk is funded out of my own pocket, is based in the United Kingdom and is available for free use for any apps, dapps and front ends that choose to offer it as an available node. You can view availability at https://hive.ausbit.dev/ the hardware is not the fastest - but it regularly sits at the upper portion of the node ranking and uptime is very good.
The remaining three servers run Witness instances of Hived for @c0ff33a and @whiterosecoffee
@c0ff33a Witness server has 64gb of Ram.
With the block log using just under 500gb of it's storage.
@whiterosecoffee Witness server has 43gb of Ram.
Backup Witness server available if either of the above two fail has 29gb of ram, all three are constantly connected to the blockchain receiving blocks and adding to their own block log instance.
I also run @teamuksupport which is supposed to be a back up voting service for United Kingdom based accounts to help support and encourage them. And I provide a number of other services for various community accounts - it all adds up and everything needs to be constantly checked - possibly restarting if it decides to randomly crash etc which is basically another reason why you don't see me posting and commenting as much as I used to.
Active HIVE Witness alongside @derangedvisions, if you appreciate the effort and work we put into the HIVE blockchain please consider giving us a Witness vote.
We run five Hive servers, two Witness Servers, Hivemind Instance, Full Account History Node, FAT Node
https://api.c0ff33a.uk our full API server to use with your dapps and front end
https://hiveblog.c0ff33a.uk Our own condenser front end, exclusively using our own API server to access the Hive Blockchain. For the best experience use on Brave Browser with Hive Keychain plugin.
Proud sponsor with @derangedcontests of @lucksacks.com , free to play and cash out HIVE rewards, head to Lucksacks Website now and start playing.
Visit #brits Discord Channel Join #teamuk and make your posts easily found, post with the tag or create a post in teamuk community so your fellow Brits can easily find and support your work. Let's work together to make #hiveuk an active community on the Hive Blockchain. #teamuk tag and Brits discord is exclusively for use by United Kingdom Hive accounts or ex pats living abroad
I distribute coffee roasting machines and also espresso coffee machines and roast my own Speciality Coffee Range. being one of the premium coffee suppliers Yorkshire including a wide range of filter coffee sachets. Finally I have a dedicated website to my Artisan small batch roasted coffee featuring roast and post packs and super easy coffee subscriptions.
Become a White Rose Coffee Roasters affiliate and earn a percentage of the sales you bring in for sharing your affiliate page links Become A White Rose Coffee Roasters Affiliate now payout available via Pay Pal or HIVE based on the current exchange rate.
Catch me live and unleashed every week on @threespeak with my c0ff33 vlogs
