Witness Essentials: HF20 Ready

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In preperation for HF20, Witness Essentials has received a complete refactoring in addition with an upgrade to use the newest HF20 methods.

This means: instead of one big script, Witness Essentials is now a project that features multiple smaller modules.

Project on Github: https://github.com/witness-essentials

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• CLI: Commands on the CLI for witnesses to quickly update signings-keys, parameters or disable witness. This includes the new HF20 witness method witness_set_properties, which is required to update the new parameters account_subsidy_budget and account_subsidy_decay.

• Watcher: Script for Steem Witnesses that watches over your witness, alerts you (TELEGRAM, SMS, MAIL) in case of missed blocks and switches (rotates between) keys. Including RPC-failover and robust error handling.

• Pricefeed: Pricefeed Script for Steem Witnesses which publishes your pricefeed based on 5 major exchanges. Including RPC-failover, PEG support and robust error handling.

• Remote Control: Script for Steem Witnesses for remote controlling the witness (change signings-keys & disable witness). Including RPC-failover and robust error handling.

CLI has already been upgraded with witness_set_properties and private signing_key support. The rest of them will follow ASAP.
(It took me quite a bit to debug and understand how witness_set_properties works on the testnet - shoutout to @almost-digital and @holger80)

But a quick disclaimer: the new HF20 versions (CLI) have been tested on the testnet, but not on live, due to obvious reasons, so they might contain bugs.

Installation

Every module has it's own little starter guide, which will always be up-to-date, so if you're interested in using one or multiple modules, head over to the project page on Github.

But I will create a seperate post for each of them in the near future.

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New method: witness_set_properties

I also want to give a few words regarding this new function witness_set_properties, which is an upgrade to the way witnesses are able to update our paramemeters.

We are now able to use the private_signing_key of our current public_signing_key to sign the witness_set_properties operation.

Additionally, we also actually need the function to set two different parameters account_subsidy_budget and account_subsidy_decay, which are important to decide how many reduced Ressource Credit (RC) creation tokens will be created each day, and how many can be there at any point in time.

I'm going to write a featured post about this and RCs in general, and I'm also interested what the general witness opinion is about these parameters, but for now, take a look at this document if you want to learn more:

More about witness_set_properties: https://github.com/steemit/steem/blob/master/doc/witness_parameters.md

More about RCs: https://github.com/steemit/steem/blob/master/doc/devs/2018-08-20-resource-notes.md

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Few words about HF20

I'm quite happy that I finished the upgrade for witness_set_properties before HF20 is active, as I truly believe in the importance for witnesses to be able to change these new parameters as fast as possible.

Now with that said:

While I know that big changes always create some sort of risk, I'm very excited about what's coming in HF20.

So - I guess, I'll see you guys on the other side.

Witness @therealwolf - Standing by!

PS: I want to thank the wonderful @artbunny for making the amazing Steem logo as seen in the thumbnail.

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^{Witness Infrastructure:
Primary Node: 128GB - v0.20.3 | Backup Node: 64GB - v0.20.3 | Seed Node: 64GB - v0.20.3}

^{Projects I've developed on Steem:
Smartsteem.com > Investment & Promotion Service on Steem
Steem Chat-Wallet & Witness Essentials > Github: https://github.com/therealwolf42}

^{If you believe that I'm of value for Steem, then please vote for me as witness. You can also set me as a proxy and I'll vote on great witnesses for you.}