What would you do with smart contracts if they were available on Hive?
Do you think that's a missing feature for Hive? Why?
When I started working on the "Steem Smart Contracts software" two years ago my goal was to allow one to deploy an arbitrary piece of code through the Steem blockchain via a second layer powered by custom json.
While this was a good idea in the first place, it appears that the only thing that Steem-Engine or Hive-Engine used it for was to allow tokens to be created and traded.
What if you were actually able to deploy your own code on these platforms (Steem/Hive-Engine)?
Looking at other "smart contracts" platforms I realized that they are mainly leveraged to create tokens and gambling games so, is it better to have a platform that allows arbitrary smart contracts deployments or a platform that is specialized in creating/trading tokens only?
I've started working on a virtual machine to allow arbitrary code deployments on Hive (a "Hive Smart Contracts" kind of thing, "Steem Smart Contracts V2" if you'd like) but I realized that maybe it's not even necessary to have a tool that allows such thing?
Do you think that SMTs are basically the missing piece in the Hive ecosystem?
Do you think that Hive-Engine in its current form is sufficient? (even with its flaws?)
Just rambling here...
I thought about this subject as well recently. Hive could support "template" smart-contracts for gambling dapps & other generic use-cases, like we have with HBD conversion and other functionalities.
where do we deploy contract?.
Great question.
In my personal opinion, efforts should be focused on completing the unfinished parts of the existing road map rather than expanding it by introducing smart contracts. The good thing about smart contracts on a side chain (a set of separate servers acting upon the operations stored on Hive as json transactions) is that no fork of any kind would be required. But designing, coding and testing a smart contract capability is a lot of work. Also, there already exist many chains out there that have this capability. Hive apps that need smart contracts could make use of them.
SMTs are absolutely crucial. It's painful that the SMT protocol is not deployed, yet. If it were, entire communities could be onboarded in one feel swoop by using Hive to tokenize them like some communities already are on Reddit by using ERC-20 tokens. We do not want to miss that train! A first mover advantage in that domain is too precious to squander!
I totally agree, now the problem with SMTs is that the Hive core development team is composed of 1-2 people, the Hive codebase is not very easy to digest so not everyone is "equipped" to go in and make changes or add features, even when Steemit had a full time team (3-4 people) working on it, the SMT project didn't progress that fast. (and there is still work to do before it's even fully ready for mainnet)
And yes, unfortunately, in the meantime, the train is moving...
I think that any blockchain ecosystem needs the ability to create smart contracts (think DeFi). Hive-Engine in it's current form is not robust since it's basically a centralized token issuance entity.
Having said that, it is my belief that implementing atomic swaps at the core level is more important than second layer solutions.
Deploying a smart contract platform is a big deal (even on a second layer). You have to decide how to handle buggy code beforehand (you don't want an Ethereum DAO like incident) and so much other stuff to think about.
Agree, I've worked on the "decentralization" process for Hive-Engine, they just haven't deployed it yet (although in its current form, anyone can run a Hive-Engine node, there's just no incentive to do so, only SCOT and STEEM/HIVE pegged tokens are fully centralized).
But yes, I'd rather have atomic swaps fully integrated in the Hive core software as well. (and a second layer engine could be used for other "types of tokens" that Hive will never handle directly. (NFTs for example))
The underlying logic provided in smart contracts could make DAOs a reality on Hive - which I think would be the greatest benefit.
If there were a tool that would allow for the creation of an on-chain organization with basic governance features, a token, and a dedicated Hive community, I could see an entirely new future for the ecosystem.
It is a useful tool. Hopefully somebody will be able to leverage it.