I’m thinking they don’t actually need to have the SMT tech yet, they’re just announcing it. The Steem blockchain technology went open source, so as soon as SMTs launch on Steem, they can copy it and launch the protocols on the Vice chain. Vice is giving a good 6 months in their timeline before they need to have SMT tech ready for their partners.
I mentioned in another comment that I don’t think this is classifiable as a fork. It sounds like an entirely new chain, using the open source technology.
If that is the case,a non fork, why pay the steem holders any tokens?