The eighth Witness Townhall for 2026 will take place on Wednesday starting at 12pm EST (4pm UTC). I had originally announced it for September 16th and then realized it was overlapping on Hivefest.
I hope people who attended Hivefest will show up to the Townhall so we can hear how it went.
There was a total of 19 in attendance in August. The Witnesses in attendance shared a lot of interesting information about their activities and how the blockchain operates.
One of the areas of discussion was how the code responds when the price of Hive goes way down like it has recently. (I will say, I’m pleased to see the current upward movement, let’s hope it continues.)
Here is the recording:
The purpose of the Witness Townhall is to provide a forum for the community to meet and hear from the Witnesses. It’s a way to get to know the Witnesses so we can be more informed when we’re applying our 30 votes.
You have reviewed your votes recently, right? Or maybe right after the Townhall would be a good time.
Join in on Wednesday, September 23rd at 12pm EST. Here is the room. The room is open so you can explore it ahead of time if you’d like.
Why Are We Meeting on Rippily?
What began as an experiment on Rippily over the summer has now become the Witness Townhall’s new home. The audience at both sessions voted heavily to remain on Rippily.
I think there is a great opportunity for Hive to hold virtual events on the platform.
Come on over and try it out.
What is Rippily?
Rippily is a new platform that was released to the public in April. It’s designed for building immersive communities and hosting virtual events. I’ve been part of it since joining the closed beta in early January.
During the August Townhall participants on mobile informed me that when their screen saver kicked in it was kicking them off the room. I reported it to the developer and he implemented a fix, so that shouldn’t be an issue now.
Anything we can imagine, we can pretty much build in Rippily. It continues to evolve.
One unexpected side benefit to our meeting there is when the room has shown up in the platform’s Discovery page, people have been asking me what Hive is. I’m considering building a room to do some workshops on blockchain and Hive.
Would you like a cafe where Hivians can hang out and chat? That can happen too.
Notes on Joining a Rippily Room
Joining is pretty easy. When you click to join the room you’ll be presented with a screen that lets you join as a guest:
Please use your Hive Username.
If you’re coming in as a guest, your avatar is randomly assigned. If you have a Rippily account then you can choose your avatar in your account dashboard.
The room can hold 100 people, should we get more people than I have seats setup for, the overflow will go into the gallery where they can see and hear what is happening but unable to come on voice. The text chat is available to everyone.
When you want to participate in the conversation, you can raise your hand. And if I have them turned on, you can also use emoji reactions.
I’ll be opening the floor so people can ask questions of the Witnesses who attend.
Come on over and join in.
Wednesday, September 23rd at 12pm EST. Here is the room. The room is open so you can explore it ahead of time if you’d like.
You can also drop into my office, I’m usually in.
