Witnesses power the Steem blockchain and are therefore very important for Steem and all the apps built on top of it such as Steemit. Without Witnesses – no Steemit, so vote wisely.

![blackboard-steem-1-1920.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPMepozBfGjmdWkNn1W1pfqGHSAjA9hQQo2duAP7m1PjQ/blackboard-steem-1-1920.jpg)

# What is a Steem Witness #

A Steem Witness is basically a Steemian, who has received the trust of the Steem community/stakeholders (Steemians who own Steem Power), to run the Steem blockchain, to verify, mine and relay new blocks, and to reliably store the ever growing Steem blockchain.

Steemit uses a voting process which is also called delegated Proof of Stake in contrast to Proof of Work which is used by Bitcoin for example.

You can vote for up to 30 witnesses on the [Witness Voting](https://steemit.com/~witnesses) page on steemit. The voting itself is super easy, you just need to know who to vote for, and your active/master key password.

The Witnesses are compensated by the blockchain (10% of the reward pool go to the Witnesses) for their hard work. The more Steem Power you have the greater your influence on the Witness election. Hence delegated Proof of Stake.

# Who to vote for #

I have identified three major categories which are important for me for my Witness selection. They are:

1. Trustworthiness , reliable network and storage solution. Quite obvious.

2. Political views about the direction of the development of Steem and Steemit. Some witnesses may have a great influence/voice about the future development of the protocol (the rules on Steem/Steemit). Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to find out this information, unless the Witness shares it in some way.

3. Project development. Many witnesses also develop cool projects that can help the community, like bots or other cool stuff. If you like a project, you can vote for the Witness to support it.

# My first 3 elected Witnesses (so far) #

*Disclaimer*: This is my first Witness vote ever from the Top 50 or actually Top 10 Witness list. This is not necessarily permanent, represents my own view. I will vote for other witnesses, maybe even local German witnesses when I find out more about them.

*Reminder*: As we have learned in my [Steemit Secrets #1](https://steemit.com/steemit/@vikisecrets/steemit-secret-1-there-is-no-privacy-on-steemit-whatsoever-but-maybe-this-a-good-thing) post, everything on Steemit is transparent, including your Witness votes. So you can find my votes anyway.

Here are my first three Witness votes. I checked the Top 50 page, and then narrowed my votes to the Top 10, which basically ensures my #1 Witness requirement (trust, network and storage).

I voted for

1. @gtg Gandalf the Grey: just the best and most creative Witness profile I have seen so far.

2. @blocktrades Steem/SBD exchange: the exchange is a very cool project, and very important to allow new and current Steemians to quickly trade Steem/SBD. And, I have also great hopes that @blocktrades helps protect the interests of Steem investors.

3. @aggroed: founder of the Minnow Support Project. Cool, upvoted. 

You can vote for up to 30 Witnesses (unfortunately the page only shows you the Top 50 but not all Witnesses) and you can change your vote whenever you like, which reminds me of the Liquid Democracy concept, which is quite cool :P

ps. this post got way longer than expected. Hope you enjoyed it :)

# Useful links #

Vote for Witnesses
https://steemit.com/~witnesses

FAQ: Steem Witnesses
https://steemit.com/faq.html#What_are_Steem_witnesses