#steem-pressure

Introducing: Steem Pressure #1

Have you ever wondered how Steem works?
How does it behave in different environments?
What equipment is used to keep it running?
How important is fast local storage?
How much RAM is enough?
More cores or a higher frequency?
Are NVMes worth their price?

You will find the answers in a series of posts called Steem Pressure. Hopefully, in addition to offering answers, it will also encourage you to ask more questions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IkI6yVvzHI^{Video created for Steem Pressure series.}

How much resources are needed to run a Steem node?

What hardware is required to do that in a reliable way?

42

Other than that, there’s no ultimate answer. It all depends on your specific needs. You might need just a local, private node to connect your cli_wallet to it, check your accounts, and broadcast some transactions, and that’s not a problem if it’s 5 seconds behind the head block. Sometimes you might need to run “just” a seed node and an occasional I/O hiccup isn’t a big deal. But there are certainly situations in which you need to aim higher. You might need to have a full API node that can return results of a thousand get_block requests in less than a second. Or a witness node that can always generate blocks on time. Or a state provider that can replay the blockchain as fast as possible.

OK, but let’s say that I need just a basic Steem node: a seed node.

Minimum requirements

If you have a fast, low latency local storage, you can probably run such a node on a machine with as little as 8GB RAM. However, that’s not recommended.

Why?

Hardware is cheap. It’s people and their skills that cost money, and skilled professionals are worth their price. Instead of wasting my time trying to run Steem on a potato, I would like to give you more information about various configurations so that you can make better choices while building your new setups.

But I need to know exactly the minimum requirements needed to run steemd.

What I can tell you for sure about minimum requirements is that they are outdated. And they will always be. The Steem platform is getting bigger and bigger, and the Steem blockchain is taking more and more space. It will require more and more disk space for the blockchain and memory to keep the data ready to access when needed. Of course, developers are working on optimizing the utilization of server resources. Nonetheless, there will be more and more data to be processed.

Recommended requirements

For now, for a low memory node, I would say these are: x86 CPU, 24GB RAM, 100GB SSD.

But….

Steem is growing (and that’s awesome!)

Here’s how Steem has evolved so far:

^{Increase of the block_log and shared_memory sizes per 100,000 blocks, for Steem consensus node.}

^{Size that Steem consensus node required for both block_log and shared_memory.}

^{Higher ratio means that relatively small amount of shm is needed to handle the given blockchain size.}

^{Time drift caused by expected vs produced blocks per day.}

###### Trivia: - Just before the end of 2017, we crossed the 1GB/100k blocks mark. Twice. - At the beginning, the Steem blockchain grew in size at a rate of less than 4MB per day. - When the year 2017 started, the blockchain was 5900MB in size and grew at a rate of 22MB/day. When it ended, the blockchain was 53125MB in size and grew at a rate of 302MB/day.

If you believe I can be of value to Steem, please vote for me ([**gtg**](/@gtg)) as a witness on [Steemit's Witnesses List](https://steemit.com/~witnesses) or set ([**gtg**](/@gtg)) as a proxy that will vote for witnesses for you. ***Your vote does matter!*** You can contact me directly on [steemit.chat](https://steemit.chat), as [Gandalf](https://steemit.chat/direct/gandalf)

[Steem On](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYMNvHV1V4E)

Comments · 103

@deepsohi(30)· 2971d
Nice
@adamdo(57)· 3114d
OK, I think I have to face it. I slept during last lectures or something, and now I have some homework to do to keep up with the rest of the world. Or maybe I'm getting old?

Anyway, I decided to write a comment because your "42" answer.

You made me smile :D
@ibar17(25)· 3119d
thanks man. great job and a big HELLO :D
@afm007(52)· 3128d
Great information about steemit. It will help peoples to understand the whole system behind the steemit.com.

*** @gtg I need your help. Auto up-vote is sucking my voting power and bandwidth. I disconnect all authorized apps from steemconnect and change my passward several times. But didn't stop up-voting. I stop sell up-vote on minnowbooster, steemvoter too. What should I do? If this goes I think my account will be a big problem. Please tell me what to do or refer me to a person who can help me.

Thanks.
@sunnyali(56)· 3130d
@khanpk(45)· 3134d
NICE Appreciated
@jonbee(1)· 3134d
thanks for your post, dear my friends, please please please Look At My Post and So that everyone can see... https://steemit.com/life/@jonbee/one-downside-of-steemit-com-is-the-downvoting-flagging-on-a-post
@fandyalsatria(33)· 3134d
Hello! I signed up for your blog, you too subscribe to my, thanks Life is beautiful!
@powerpaul(71)· 3134d
Oooooh jeah, this informations are exactly what i need at the moment! I plan to buy some computer stuff to make more stuff with steem(it), but hard to find an starting point for infos. Now i have. Thank you so much, @gtg!
@sweetjoy(50)· 3135d
This is a lot of great info to study. Thank you for this post. Some of it is over my head...but I'll get there!! Joy
@isai044(29)· 3136d
@gtg(65) vote por ti y te sigo sigue trabajando y que tengas exito en tu proyectos
@mrposyble(56)· 3136d
before the year ends, many people will be financially stable through steemit. i am very sure of that.

i just stumbled upon your profile and i am very happy i did.

will be checking you every second for informative posts

keep it up bro

i am inspired by you.

@gtg all the way....
@tmntzara(59)· 3137d
I was wondering is it possible to mine steem? And how to do that?
@steemitboard(66)· 3137d
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@sanjay2011s(45)· 3138d
will you take action against those who serially flags other post. haejin ranchorelaxo and someother. steemit is supposed to be best platform in social media , and i wish it will replace facebook in some years. if these people serially falgged other, we may loose faith in steemit. once littleboy falgged my comment, i dont know why he flagged. i was in my early stage on steemit, my comment wasnt that spam too. neither my comment was out of post, still he flagged me. if we have a mistake too let us know. he flagged me and didnt replied my comment, so how can i know what was my mistake . whale and dolphins need to guide minnows like us.if they need to falg the post or comment , let those minnows know , why he has been flagged . so they wont make such mistakes again. help us to grow.i hope somedai i will also be supported by a whale. this is what i have believed and never gave up steemit . i wasnt supposed to comment this here. but i didnt find any place to complain it. i found you to be the witness, and i thought witness can solve this problem .
@cryptohazard(63)· 3138d
Oh boy I need to update my witness machine. Soon I won't be able to use it for anything else than steemit witness since I have a 32GB RAM limit.
@nismhd(52)· 3138d
hahah! steem pressure!! nice post!
@ciocolony(42)· 3139d
Steemit hasn't being a great community, I will be holding my first community class in two weeks time, gearing up...

Hope to get assistance from steemian around the country to come assist.
@ullah16(14)· 3139d
Hello ........
@sadeghr1987(25)· 3140d
Good
@mariajose440(44)· 3141d
exclent Post, My vote for you is ready, regards!!
@cryptoryno33(35)· 3141d
Great article. Resteemed and upvoted!
@bigmike420(62)· 3141d
this posts are so informative. really helps a lot :)
@karencarrens(59)· 3142d
Hi @gtg! This is a really great series that satisfies the nerdy side of my brain! 🤓
@smartbcamp(40)· 3142d
We need your touch... to impact lives out there
@delphic(50)· 3142d
It's good. ^^
@maulanabayu(34)· 3142d
Amazing post.. I like it
@yura81(47)· 3142d
your Steem's support should be rewarded!
@oscar.rak(51)· 3142d
Oooo własnie takie artykułu szukałem. Dzięki bardzo za ten tekst. Teraz mi się trochę w głowie przejaśniło. :)
@osmy07(61)· 3142d
Excellent post as always! This is a lot information and I admit that I couldn't understand all of it, but I think the fact that we can earn some money with our minds, with our creativity is amazing, as you can see I'm new here, and I have so many things to learn, but I'm learning with steemit everyday, the information that people share here is awesome, I'm very grateful with your work here, you're one of the best witness here and I'm happy when I can read your posts, thanks a lot!
@dber(66)· 3142d
I really appreciate your taking the time to create this sort of series. Periodically there will be heated arguments about steemit's scalability and the technical requirements for running a node, and I find myself pretty uninformed as a reader.

This fills in some of the gaps and I imagine future posts in the series will fill out more.

But I am interested in your opinion about scalability. There was a ton of growth in 2017 - and presumably that growth wil continue, as you anticipate. But does their come a point where the growth is no longer scalable for decentralized volunteer witnesses to handle? I imagine the amount of information being transacted through the blockchain in 2020 would still be nothing to, say, a Google server farm. But will it be manageable by witnesses at the current rate of growth?

(I'm really just curious - I'm not coming at this question with any pre-suppositions or hypothesis - end of the day, ima just keep plugging away at my fungal hobbies regardless - but this scalability question is a point of interest nonetheless, and as it comes up periodically in high level comment threads I'd be interested to hear your opinion.)

Thanks for all you do!
@syibran(56)· 3143d
I like u post
@maturidy(35)· 3143d
Good I am sur for your post @gtg Please vote my blog sister :)
@psos(66)· 3144d
Vote for witness done, keep going! 👍
@blacksheepblog(52)· 3144d
it's great to read this article I was actually looking at running a seed node to build a bit of SP. I've followed the quickstart guide and managed to have a steemd running for the last hour
```
steemit/steem "/bin/sh -c /usr/l..." About an hour ago Up About an hour 0.0.0.0:2001->2001/tcp, 0.0.0.0:8090->8090/tcp steemd-exchange
```
I've not really pay attention to the hardware requirements since I'm doing that with my laptop, I'm doing it to explore steemit and understand. I haven't look to much in the cli_wallet I don't really understand the use of it yet what is it for ? What are the motivations behind running a node ? I mean if you serious about it you obviously spend money in proper hardware. How many nodes are running all together ? What should I do give up or leave my laptop running ? it's very silent it can run all night no problem. I have 8Gb of ram but right now ony 3.2GB is used and that's probably my OS, is that mean something is not working or that the syncing is still processing ? thank you for this article I felt a bit isolated with this cheers
@nikethemutt(53)· 3144d
Thanks for the peek behind the curtain. Steem is like a car, all I know is how to drive it and I have no idea how it works!
@akingdesigner(39)· 3144d
What exactly is a Steem Witness??
@arcange(79)· 3144d
Congratulations @gtg! Your post was mentioned in the hit parade in the following category:
- Pending payout - Ranked 9 with $ 625,6
@fernandorivera(37)· 3144d
I do not know if it works with only 16gb of RAM, it would be interesting to try to make a node using a raspberry pi 3 to consume less electricity
@seharfatima(40)· 3144d
Good Job @gtg
@adriianoakino(25)· 3144d
very good post !
@youssef55(31)· 3144d
المزيد من النجاح والتوفيق 👍👍☝
@fadil94(51)· 3144d
postingan yang sangat bagus sukses selalu brader salam kenal dari saya
@grecki-bazar-ewy(72)· 3144d
@grecki-bazar-ewy set gtg as proxy :)
@santano(33)· 3144d
I have just followed you. Kindly pls follow back. Thanks for the useful info
@goldstone(37)· 3144d
This is great.. im starting to build my community two people just started today.. many more to come
@sharatots(50)· 3144d
Very creative series of videos on steemit @gtg... keep up the good work boss!
@angeljuhi(44)· 3144d
Incredible journey of "THE STEEMIT" 4MB to 1GB/100k blocks mark...big applause....B-)
@usamachoudry(36)· 3144d
Do not forget us dude
@saikolola(52)· 3144d
wow, nice good job! :D
@andresolerc(38)· 3144d
Thanks for sharing this article, I am more interested about Steem in depth
@arios(31)· 3145d
The steem will be one of the best coins in the market
@wabulakhafelix(27)· 3145d
The more promote steemit in your place the more it grows.
@bitgeek(62)· 3145d
Congratulations @gtg, this post is the third most rewarded post (based on pending payouts) in the last 12 hours written by a Superhero or Legend account holder (accounts hold greater than 100 Mega Vests). The total number of posts by Superhero and Legend account holders during this period was 40 and the total pending payments to posts in these categories was $7140.12. To see the full list of highest paid posts across all accounts categories, click here.

If you do not wish to receive these messages in future, please reply stop to this comment.
@victoria.tomova(34)· 3145d
Graet post! I follow you :) https://seeninbg.wordpress.com/
@luzfermin(46)· 3145d
Se han puesto a ver como las personas hacen de todo un poco para crear algo nuevo para la comunidad de steemit. Miles de personas usando sus mentes con un fin en común. Aprovechando todo tipo de recursos ya que saben que es una buena inversión.
@pioner21(53)· 3145d
One from the best post !! I like your beautiful work!! Thank you for the hard job!!
@nayyabsipra(53)· 3145d
Hey @gtg Its very awesome article and thanks for update of this blog sharing. Its very informative for steemian community and also social media. Keep it sharing and all the best
@sid9999(52)· 3145d
@gtg I hope this is just beginning of wonderful steem year and in last six months the no of new user joining steem has doubled this is just because of our collective efforts and I know this ia just beginning and really I feel proud to be a part of this wonderful steemit community where people help each other and grow together!!
@domkabas(46)· 3145d
Love to see something you believe in growing at this rate. I spread the word in Lithuania and move my cars related authentic content to this platform. Live long and prosper!
@mahasal(44)· 3145d
good post, good info thanks for sharing
@dakster(50)· 3145d
Thank you @gtg! I post me too some blogs about how some cryptocurrencies work! I find your article Very informative!
@lpreap(68)· 3145d
Crazy to see how fast this place is expanding!
@jesus1507(38)· 3145d
If steem is still on the rise as shown, you will need to expand the server as we can see in the explanation of the post, because it is not equal to a server where we process 1000 users making their post to 1 million, is the same logic that is applied in the game servers, thanks for your post this helps to inform people
@virendra(49)· 3145d
Wow steem processor
@ajmalaftab(54)· 3145d
What a great pressure is this on steemit but you are going well
@setuakter(45)· 3145d
**what a nice post

i love this post**
@dez1337(64)· 3145d
Hay @gtg - Nice to see this series has been started <3

Can you also loose some words about the costs and rewards for witnesses? While you are totally right by saying "Hardware is cheap" I think it is still a first barrier for new poeple to rent a server for 40$ per month.

Do the witness rewards are enough to pay your hardware costs or do they just lower your losses?

Thanks in advice and best regards!
@bigmike420(62)· 3145d
Very detailed and helpful information. Thanks for sharing it. 😊
@antonysteem(44)· 3145d
this is really very amazing .. a very great post. Thank you my friend for enlightening us. always my brother. we desperately need this kind of work
@saad19(50)· 3145d
indeed it will grow more & more, fast & fast
@whd(63)· 3145d
@joefinity(25)· 3145d
I guess steem will be the future how are you guys think about that ?
@darkblack(25)· 3145d
great article, very informative
@fun2learn(72)· 3145d
I will keep in mind about the amount of effort that witnesses have to commit. I have only voted for 9 witnesses so far. Those that I felt had contributed to steemit. I am only a 30-day steemit member so I am still getting to know the witnesses even though I have been your follower not long after I join. I will keep you in my consideration when I vote for my next round of witnesses. Thanks for sharing with us about the technical part that many of us may not totally understand before your sharing!
@toufiqsoudagar(37)· 3145d
Hi I am following to u and your articles are very interesting good going best of luck to you. I am new to steemit follow me and upvote me.
@kingcoins(44)· 3145d
Thank you again for these detailed explanations @gtg.

This will really help the world because we are probably many not to know. And to be informed will push to find the valid arguments to also defend the Steem system. Sometimes complicated to develop when you only know the terms "it's a platform where you earn money for your post" without big arguments behind.

So now we are ready ;) Take care

P&U
@jiafui(50)· 3145d
Very informative post! I didnt know what run behind steemit before this lol. Steemit is getting more popular in my country too,I've been spreading the words to others lately. Good sharing!
@zirar(50)· 3145d
hmm... i see its gonna be very challenging issue in the future.But in devs i trust.
@lpessin(61)· 3145d
I was needing something like that! I'm working my way to, in the long term, become one of the firsts Brazilians witness, this series will be very helpful. Watching closely! thx =]
@gothika47(48)· 3145d
Do normal people need to know this info to use the site or is it only useful to witnesses? Interesting stats none the less.
@izge(58)· 3145d
Very interesting read and good content. Thanks for the information.
@shrinivasdontul(35)· 3145d
Thanks for the information on block size growth. So as steem grows bigger and bigger in size more hardware would be needed. Which means witness will require more steem power. So as a responsible Steemian I have already voted for witness yesterday. They are doing great job. I will donate partial steempower as well when its enough. Thanks Gandalf for the post. I voted you as witness.
@yassinof(51)· 3145d
as some friends said actually steemit is a way of thinking and thank you for those information even new users always have so many questions and really less answers but with time everything will be okay thank you for the information
@mahdiyari(73)· 3145d
Keep up these series. Thanks @gtg I will support #steem-pressure
@vnyrox(9)· 3145d
After complete 4 months i understand steem , steem power, and steem dollar and now here comes steem pressure :p @gtg good post though..!
@happygirl2018(50)· 3145d
its my first week in steemit , my brother invites me and i think steemit is amazing my life s has changed i know nothing about crypto and bitcoin , i will do my best to learn more i wil just bloging in steemit and creat an original content i :)
@bigman70(58)· 3145d
Yes. Steem will be one of leading system. If you confident on it and study it in depth. You will have a clear vision, too. Thanks,
@vasil-danev(56)· 3145d
Great information about steem ! I hope we can reach any time soon 10$+ and keep on growing :)
@bitton(54)· 3145d
Don't forget the witnesses which donate so much for this platform!
@akhyarhuroxx(50)· 3145d
Many are in love of the music of one of his western music thanks for his post and vidionya
@noorijaz(47)· 3145d
Its good information. I agree with your idea in this way we can earn more. Thanks for sharing the the post that would help the steemit community.I like your posts so much that I always wait for your post and with your post attention Podium I thank you very much
@munawar1235(69)· 3145d
Hello @gtg it is really a great initiative.
@jawad09(66)· 3145d
Wonderful and indeed a very informative Article dear @gtg. You shared about #steem-pressure which is meant that how much space is being used and in future while growing steemit which challenges will have to face us. This specification which you didn't recommended is very costly for a common man: For now, for a low memory node, I would say these are: x86 CPU, 24GB RAM, 100 GB SSD. And I bet this will not work after 1st quarter of 2018. Anyways, I have one question @gtg... It might be a stupid one but it came in my mind so I am asking? Withe passage of time will a user need a high specs system to run steemit accurately or Not....? From my side this blog post is one of best post in connection with great information on technicalities of steemit(Hidden Things). I'm so blessed that you're connected with me here. Keep your great work up and all the best!
@gogle(39)· 3145d
well, i had absolutely no idea how steemit works, i'm kinda new to steemit. It seems like steemit is growing really fast, and one of the reasons of steemit success is amazing community. Keep up the good work!
@jasonshick(66)· 3145d
Cheers for the info Gandalf. I know very little about the technical side but always like learning more. Going to be a great year for everyone here using the steem chain. Happy new year
@filotasriza3(72)· 3145d
a friend of mine literally a couple of minutes ago asked me some of those questions i had no clue as what to answer. Now i will provide him this post! thanks a lot you made my life easier :p
@stimialiti(61)· 3145d
Do you think STEEM could scale to a 1/1000 the current size of Facebook within the upcoming 6 years? Rhetorical, but you should accept it sooner than later.
@machhour(61)· 3145d
Steem is awesome , it is a way of thinking , mining with your mind , i promoted steemit in arabic country i was the first person talk about steem in the arabic community , over 2000 persons joins us and a facebook group with 4000 active users , its amazing!!
@sabbirahmedd(53)· 3145d
very well post dear ana great steemit job
@trendo(59)· 3145d
I've been thinking lately how all of this actually works :D So, basically since steemit is growing bigger and bigger all the time, witnesses need to constantly upgrade their hardware as the time passes, right?
@mdfahim(46)· 3145d
This post is very helpful @gtg
@mousumimou(56)· 3145d
Wow,amazing post..