# <center>Witness Updates @ July 2017</center>

<div class=pull-right>
https://steemitimages.com/0x0/http://orig05.deviantart.net/0f00/f/2012/097/5/7/eye_witness_by_0x4fffwhite-d4vclzf.png
</div>

It's been a turbulent month, to say the least. The STEEM and SBD price has dropped rapidly, together with many other cryptocurrencies. *I belive* this is due to the fact that the Bitcoin community isn't sure on where they will head in the near future. We're talking [SegWit](https://bitcoincore.org/en/segwit_adoption/) here folks, but the market isn't sure what to belive. 

The Gridcoin Community has been even more turbulent, a community that I hold dear to me, with a very busy development team rectifying with some issues that suddenly arose, keeping them working well in to the nights the past week, resulting in several updates. I must admire them for their efforts and dedication to this very great coin. **Great times are ahead of us!**

### <center>But lets jump on to the updates of mine and what I've been doing</center>

## SBD Price Peg Issue
I will be addressing the issue with the SBD price not keeping on the peg of the USD by changing my price feeds to support bias to hold the 1 SBD == 1 USD, by using [conductor](https://github.com/Netherdrake/conductor) this will be updated variably when price drifts. I will also support the increase of APR, setting mine to 1.5%.

## Block Size Issue
I've supported the increased block size since the start of my witnesses, trying to force the main witnesses to follow. As described from @someguy123 in his post "[Dear Witnesses - Please increase your block size!](https://steemit.com/witness-category/@someguy123/dear-witnesses-please-increase-your-block-size)", there are still some to convince to go this way.

I support an increase of creation fees, setting my default to 0.5 STEEM for them at the moment. With the price falling this should be increased.

As with price and APR, we as backup witnesses doesn't make the consensus; that's something the top 20 witnesses do and why it's important to support active witnesses as well as looking on where they stand in various questions.

## Join Bitshares; Now running a Full Node + 2 Witnesses
<div class=pull-right>https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://forobits.com/uploads/default/306/3a0c4c35aeafdea4.png</div>

I have [joined Bitshares as a witness](https://steemit.com/bitshares/@sc-steemit/joining-in-as-bitshares-witness). With my big interest in Graphene, the system that Steemit is built upon, I can't go without supporting Bitshares as well. The cost to become a witness on Bitshares is quite high, compared to Steem that has no prices, but I will still do my very best for the Bitshares community as well.

First out was starting a Main witness node, as well as a Backup witness node. Some users reached out to me on the forum telling me that there was a need for more Full Nodes to connect to, so I decided that this was a first task to make. 

**Full Node Specs:**
- 10-core Intel® Xeon® E5-2620v3 or E5-2630v4 processor
- 52GB RAM
- 1Gigabit unmetered traffic

You can connect to this node trough `wss://bitshares.crypto.fans/ws`

To start using the Bitshares DEX [you need to create an account](https://bitshares.openledger.info?r=sc-ol).

## Monitor Scripting
With running more nodes on multiple networks it's important to make sure they all run smooth. Reporting to me in case of something unexpected happening is vital, even as a backup witness. Due to this I have forked a version of @roelandp's work on a Python Monitoring script. I have already added a few more functions and will push some updates to it as it's been tested and verified. This will be one of my first contributions of application support for the Graphene communities; Bitshares, Steem and PeerPlays.

Knowing little Python from start I've quickly gained some very good skills in this very new language for me coming from the PHP coding field, but it's been a blast to learn.

## Gridcoin Block Explorer; Going Team Less - More stats for the Masses
<div class=pull-left>https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://steemitimages.com/DQmcoAmSSUbjahi4PqtaQkkxAGhwGCF7Zi67ddfSaYgpTnk/gridcoinuniverse.png</div>

My main website project, Gridcoinstats.eu, have been running well for months. With an increasing traffic demand we [recently moved to bigger servers](https://steemit.com/gridcoinstas/@sc-steemit/settled-in-our-new-home-gridcoinstats-has-moved), and they seem to be holding the load much better ;)

The Gridcoin Project has decided to investigate on dropping the requirements for having to be part of the Gridcoin Boinc Team to be rewarded, heavily increasing the possible users to reward from around 12,000 to over 4 million!! 

Due to this I've been working with making the page work without the team requirements, making the page work with keeping stats for **ALL** Boinc users worldwide instead. This is making the page a direct competitor to Boincstats, which is pretty sweet :)

The work is progressing well, but still needs testing and an update to both to the backend as well as the frontend to the page. Expecting an update of the main webpage in a few weeks. 

## Future Ideas
For the future I plan to perfect the monitoring script as I mentioned before, supporting the community. I will continue to read and follow updates from the communities and their users, being a conduit between them and the Delegated POS system as a witness.

I wish to continue to support and contribute to those projects that I hold dear. With your continued support I can do this for each and everyone of you.

## <center>Thank you for all for your support</center>
<center>![6Tp6KERnc.png](https://steemitimages.com/DQmY7bPTuqqNCQxT4yZhEBdbGt9dmUfTYNuxHEBJxCcbL3C/6Tp6KERnc.png)
</center><center><h4>&nbsp;Support me as witness on Steemit.com and BitShares<h6>Steemit: sc-steemit <a href='https://steemit.com/~witnesses'><img src='https://steemitimages.com/DQmNMUctDGwFLodWPEhtsNNqX49czWPTPffReVEeWcHRwmt/vote_witness_scsteemit.PNG'></a><br />BitShares: sc-ol <img src='https://steemitimages.com/DQmZu3oUhQRQUN6VsFMuWeyPHW8Dd5es49ZCLyvdXM9jLmq/vote_witness_scol_white_2.PNG'><br />Proud Supporter of the <a href='http://www.gridcoin.us'>Cryptocurrency Gridcoin</a>
</h6></h4></center>