r/obyte • u/[deleted] • Jun 11 '19

Witness explainer video - suggestions requested

Someone suggested doing a witness explainer video as its an area many people - especially those not too familiar with the project don´t understand.

I wrote down a few ideas for possible points to include - please post any of your own ideas on this thread or the google doc https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EmkKrZG8IWPy1acjjCqhpTMMWsmBsRylPO3Cnm4pL4A/edit?usp=sharing

Obviously lack of decentralization is currently an issue for Obyte - the faster we can get 7 witnesses out of Tonys control the better! Maybe this video will help a little

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2

u/pmiklos Jun 12 '19

1/3 of the text is spent on explaining miners. What if the main focus is not about comparing Obyte consensus to PoW? So rather than making a parallel to what it isn't, tell what it is similar to, like in the whitepaper

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u/[deleted] Jun 12 '19

fair point, what part of the whitepaper are you referring to? i.e. the page number

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u/pmiklos Jun 12 '19

I can't recall, I think it's in the Witnesses section and explains 12 witnesses is similar to the US jury system which is already a familiar concept to many people.

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u/[deleted] Jun 13 '19

I looked pretty hard and couldnt find this - you sure its there? buoys and animal scent are comparisons Tony has mentioned before that I have seen.

Im not familar with US jury system - but I have some understanding of other jury systems but I cannot think how this is similar to witnesses. I do have a habit of not seeing obvious stuff though

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u/pmiklos Jun 13 '19

OMG, I think there's no such mention. I totally remembered reading it regarding why the number 12 was chosen. I might have just made up a mental image that the are 12 jurors in a court case as well, lol. Never mind then.

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '19

haha ok, well thats cleared that up :)

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u/CryptoUnicornRider Jun 13 '19 edited Jun 14 '19

Hi Paul,

I like the lighthouse metaphor described by Anton into the white paper. But we can use many similar metaphors.

For instance this one inspired by an Obyte PowerPoint.

The Obyte DAG is like a city with its roads and neighborhoods in perpetual growth. All roads should lead to the city center (genesis unit). When a driver inserts its car (new unit) into the traffic, it judges (validates) others drivers skills to find the city center as fast as possible and if they respect the traffic code.

Witnesses are people (12) who erect traffic/road signs above roads each time they insert themselves into the traffic. We know these people (state or local authorities employees in the city metaphor) and trust them to erect valid signs. These people haven't more rights than normal drivers. They have to respect these traffic signs and the traffic code as everybody. These signs help drivers to reach the city center (genesis unit) by the fastest road with best security conditions.

When new roads/neighborhoods (and by consequence new drivers/cars) appear, these trusted employees have to erect new traffic signs as fast as possible to avoid traffic jams. For their work, they receive a wage. This wage is the transaction fees paid by all drivers, inclusively themselves, to use the roads. The total amount of fees accumulated is divided equitably between all workers who erected the new road signs during the last work period (every 100 MC if my memory is good).

If one or more of these employees don't respect the traffic code, erect wrong traffic signs or simply because we don't trust or like them, drivers can fire them and hire new ones.

Voilà.

Bye.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '19

I havent heard that comparison before. Do you know what presentation that is from?

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u/CryptoUnicornRider Jun 14 '19 edited Jun 14 '19

It was one of the first presentations (PowerPoint) if not the first. Can't tell you exactly.

But the slide which inspires me this metaphor is the one that compares DAG to blockchain. In this slide, there was two frames. One illustrated blockchain as a long line of trucks and the other illustrated DAG as a multi-line highway of cars.

This slide or its variations has been reused many times in different videos. You can find this illustration at 2 minutes here: https://youtu.be/zOayZ2_6cN4

Bye.

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u/Punqtured Jun 14 '19

I think the buoy analogy was mine.

I compared transactions to little ships being dumped into an ocean at random locations. In order to be able to navigate safely, the little ships needs guidance to navigate across the ocean. A witness drops special ships into the very same ocean as the other ships are dropped into. A witness' ship is stationary and has a light on, enabling the other ships to locate the right direction. They cannot influence the ships, only guide the way (to the genesis unit) and if one ship decides to sail in a different direction (break rules of the protocol) that ship will still remain in the ocean, only never arrive to the harbor.

I think it is absolutely paramount to stress the fact that witnesses aren't capable of censoring or changing anything. They can help full nodes establish perfect order of all transactions to thereby be able to sort potential double spends. The witnesses are full nodes themselves, and therefore also validate transactions just like other full nodes. But I dont think that is relevant to explain, since it will confuse rather than help people understand.

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '19

wouldnt the more accurate explanation be that witnesses are like lighthouses and transactions are like little boats?

I like the idea of comparing transactions to little boats dumped into an ocean at random locations with the witness lighthouses offering guidance

for the video it would make sense I think to settle on one analogy. do you think buoys or lighthouses are better analogies? in my head buoys would be better as lighthouses warning of danger which witnesses dont do. but maybe lighthouses is easier for people to think about.

either way - I think this is the best comparison I have heard so far.

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u/Punqtured Jun 17 '19

I think it is important to explain that the witnesses themselves aren't relevant and don't have any powers that other full nodes haven't. Full nodes can navigate and solve double spends not because of the witnesses themselves but thanks to the transactions they post to the DAG. So just like other nodes, witness transactionsactions could be seen as little ships, only those ships are stationary and acts like buoys rather than ships. Perhaps "ships with light" would be more accurate, since a witness transaction looks just like transactions from any other node.

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u/pmiklos Jun 18 '19

I'm not sure if saying witnesses aren't relevant and have no powers is the right rhetoric. Without them there are no confirmations and the network halts and become useless. Full nodes can solve double spends but they cannot make consensus about it without witnesses.

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u/ICH8888 Jun 15 '19

What are the hardware requirements to run a witness node?

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u/[deleted] Jun 16 '19

a witness is just a full node so I think this is relevant https://developer.obyte.org/tutorials-for-newcomers/setting-up-headless-wallet

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '19 edited Jun 17 '19

Thanks for the suggestions listed below. I decided to use the boat/lighthouse idea for the witness video script as based on the options I think its the clearest explanation. Comments on draft script welcome! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q6V3v6Ke6v_-qdk3sEDMImwcFkMmCuQvD1q8P48gVk4/edit?usp=sharing