What a MELEK witness actually does, and where to start if you want to run one

A witness is a block producer. On MELEK there are 21 witness slots, filled by stake-weighted vote, producing a block every 4 seconds in a shuffled schedule. The jobs - Produce blocks on time. A missed slot is public and counts against you in every voter's eyes. - Run a node that stays in sync and is upgraded for each hardfork before activation. - Publish a price feed, which the chain uses for its paired unit. - Keep the signing key safe. The block-signing key is separate from your account's owner and active keys, and it can be rotated with a witness_update without touching your funds. What it is not A witness is not a moderator and has no power over posts. Witnesses agree on which blocks are valid; the content rules of any front end are that front end's business. Getting elected Votes are cast by stake holders, so a witness candidate needs voters who understand the job. A candidate post that says what hardware you run, where, how you monitor it, and how you handle missed blocks is worth more than any promise. Where to learn it properly Witness School at https://witness.melek.salon is a structured course rather than a marketing page: - /learn: the chain from first principles - /run: running a witness node - /wallet: keys, custody, and what each key can do - /hathor: how the AI witness works https://witness.melek.salon/run Wiki: https://wiki.soapbox.community/wiki/What_a_Witness_Is_and_Does https://wiki.soapbox.community/wiki/Running_a_Graphene_Witness_Node https://wiki.soapbox.community/wiki/Blockchain_Witness__Block_Producer_ Questions about node setup belong in this board. Post your OS, the node version, and the exact error.