Blockchain Governance: Witnesses
Blurt is a decentralized ecosystem. Instead of being controlled by a single entity, the network is maintained and governed by its users through a voting system.
The Vital Role of Witnesses
Witnesses are the technical backbone of the blockchain. They are elected by the community to provide the infrastructure necessary for the network to exist.
Block Production
Witnesses run servers that verify and record transactions into blocks and help keep the network stable.
Fee Parameters
Witnesses influence important blockchain fee settings such as the operation flat fee, bandwidth fee per kB, account creation fee, and proposal creation fee.
Network Upgrades
Witnesses decide on protocol changes by running updated software and supporting network upgrades.
The top-ranked 20 witnesses produce the vast majority of blocks. They must ensure high uptime to keep the blockchain stable and responsive.
Witnesses ranked 21 and below act as a safety net. They strengthen decentralization and can move up if higher-ranked witnesses become inactive or lose community support.
A blockchain is only as strong as its active participants. Inactive or outdated witnesses can slow down the network and weaken governance.
How to evaluate your witnesses:
- Uptime: Are they missing blocks?
- Updates: Are they running current software after important upgrades?
- Engagement: Do they communicate technical updates or community contributions?
Witness voting is one of the main governance tools on Blurt. When you vote for witnesses, you support the people who help maintain the blockchain and keep the network running.
Your votes matter
Your witness voting influence is based on your stake. In general, accounts with more BP have more influence in witness governance.
Multiple witness votes
You can vote for multiple witnesses, but on Blurt your witness voting stake is split across the witnesses you vote for.
On Blurt, your witness voting stake is divided by the number of witnesses you vote for. This means your governance influence is shared across your selected witness votes instead of being applied in full to each one.
- Support witnesses who are active, reliable, and technically up to date.
- Check from time to time whether your voted witnesses are still producing blocks and communicating with the community.
- Do not vote blindly just because a name is popular.
- Remember that voting for more witnesses means your stake is split across more candidates.
- Review your witness votes after important updates or hardforks.
Most Blurt frontends provide a dedicated witness voting page inside the wallet or governance area. There you can review active witnesses, check rankings, and cast or remove your votes.
BlurtWallet Witness Voting
A commonly used witness voting page where you can review witnesses and manage your votes.
What to look for
- Witness rank and activity status
- Missed blocks
- Version status after updates
- Your current votes