Ned Talks: Steem, Steemit, and SMTs

in #steem6 years ago (edited)

For the Korean version of this post, go here

Hello Steemians,

I’m Ned Scott, the CEO of Steemit. Today I wanted to share with you a video of a presentation I recently gave in South Korea at a meetup for the digital asset exchange GoPax. In it I give a high-level overview of the Steem ecosystem.

Since Steem, steemit.com, and even the team at Steemit have all grown so much over the last year, I thought it would be good to share this video with those of you who might be less familiar with how everything ties together, or those of you interested in explaining it to others.

For those interested, here is a video of that presentation:

Starting with Steem

Because steemit.com is usually where people first hear about Steem, it’s often what they want to learn about first. However, I believe it is necessary to start with the foundational concepts. Once people understand how everything works at the base level, they will be better able to understand everything that sits on top of it.

As a database, Steem stores redundant, high-reliability data about two things: STEEM (the cryptocurrency) and content-related data (blog posts, comments, upvotes, etc.). Content management primitives for the content-related data allow any entrepreneur who wants to build an application (or applications) on Steem to understand very quickly how they can use that data to set up their own site. In this sense, Steem can be viewed as the only Content Management System on a blockchain.

What’s novel here is how the account system ties back into the cryptocurrency. It is the interlinking of these two types of data that unlocks a new world of possibilities for entrepreneurs.

Delegated Proof of Stake

This data is made redundant through the use of a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) system, where different validators of transactions process all data that comes into the blockchain. We call those validators “witnesses,” and they run “nodes,” which are connected to one another via a peer-to-peer protocol that enables them to speak to one another in a reliable and predictable way.

This system allows them to “ask” one another if they have the same copy of the data. If one of them has a different copy of the data, their node can become invalid, giving someone else the opportunity to take their place and their job.

One thing that makes this possible is the cryptocurrency that was bootstrapped in the ecosystem from the beginning: STEEM. Part of the logic programmed into the Steem database dictates that a percentage of the STEEM tokens created by the blockchain must be paid out to these nodes at a predictable rate. This provides the witnesses with the incentive to perform the job of running a node and performing that service reliably.

Steemit.com

Steemit.com is a web portal that exists outside of the Steem database. In this type of scenario, a group of people run nodes that connect to the Steem blockchain. These nodes hold their own copies of the data that is stored on Steem. This enables entrepreneurs to leverage this data to populate web applications of their own design. People can then use those applications to submit data to the Steem blockchain (as blog posts, in the case of steemit.com). The data is then reconciled with the cryptocurrency system, thereby enabling cryptocurrency tokens to be paid out to those people who are submitting data.

More than steemit.com

Dozens, probably even hundreds, of other websites are now plugging into the Steem blockchain service in this way. A notable one is DTube (a YouTube competitor), which combines the same content management and cryptocurrency primitives with another data service called IPFS to serve up videos. DTube has also become very popular due to the fact that it distributes cryptocurrency rewards, thanks to Steem.

These early adopters have helped to show how these cryptocurrency reward systems inside content applications can be so powerful, and why there are now over a million accounts on the Steem blockchain. With the upcoming release of our Smart Media Tokens (SMTs) protocol, these same entrepreneurs (along with entirely new ones) will gain the ability to create their very own STEEM-like token that launches their application - and their business - to the next level.

Smart Media Tokens

SMTs are a new piece of open source software that we are writing and submitting to the Steem github repository, where it will be either approved or rejected by the witnesses, depending on their assessment of whether or not it will compromise the security of the network, and whether the Steem community supports the idea.

The way to visualize Smart Media Tokens is to imagine the STEEM cryptocurrency as its own database within the Steem database. SMTs simply enable transaction logs for other currencies to be created inside that same blockchain database. With SMTs, anyone will be able to launch their own currency (or currencies), and the data relating to those tokens will be accessible to any of those entities and entrepreneurs previously mentioned. Even steemit.com could, theoretically, leverage these new cryptocurrency databases in interesting ways.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how other entrepreneurs decide to make use of these tokens. I fully expect that the information gained through these experiments will help us improve steemit.com and make it even more inspiring to both entrepreneurs and users.

Why SMTs?

STEEM is currently being used in multiple applications that are gaining mainstream acceptance. Through this integration we’ve learned a lot about how cryptocurrencies interact with websites and their end users. It’s been almost two years that we’ve been observing these behaviors and we now know that we’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible with respect to incentivizing behaviors through cryptocurrency. That being the case, we had to seriously consider that STEEM, as a sole cryptocurrency, may not be tapping into all of those potential use cases.

Bootstrapping

As we have been communicating with entrepreneurs who want to use the cryptocurrency, we’ve learned about the various elements of their businesses with which they need help. One example would be during the bootstrapping phase. During this time an entrepreneur is attempting to acquire sufficient resources to get their application off the ground and begin serving users. Because Steem is a pre-existing token, it can’t necessarily be used to serve this function.

This gap, along with a few others, led us to begin the thought-experiment of hosting multiple tokens on Steem. Because of Steem’s unique characteristics we didn’t have to limit ourselves to regular, run-of-the-mill Bitcoin-type cryptocurrencies, and could consider cryptocurrencies like STEEM, which has special properties like Proof-of-Brain (PoB).

With PoB, tokens are created at regular intervals and distributed to those who submit content to the blockchain, based on the stake-weighted upvotes of other users. Through this mechanism, the people casting votes are validating the value of that content by rewarding it with cryptocurrency.

This mutual exchange ensures that everyone within the ecosystem is happy. The creators of the content have been rewarded for their efforts, and the token holders are happy because they’re the ones who voted on the content in the first place with the impact of their vote being proportional to their skin-in-the-game (their stake). Finally, because the money comes out of the reward pool instead of anyone’s wallet and is released through a simple upvote, there is minimal cognitive load on the user.

All of this creates a positive feedback loop that leads to compounding network growth, as evidenced by Steem. Smart Media Tokens are really about giving new entrepreneurs the opportunity to do what our community has done with Steem, but with their very own cryptocurrency, all while feeding back into the Steem ecosystem.

Initial Coin Offerings

While bootstrapping is important, it doesn’t solve the problem of how an entrepreneur can build an application in the first place. For that they require funding, which is why the SMT protocol will launch with logic for performing Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). This means that entrepreneurs will be able to offer batches of their currency for sale to the public in exchange for STEEM. These early adopters would then be guaranteed a number of those tokens when the currency goes live. A successful ICO would therefore enable the launcher of an SMT to acquire capital which they could use to build and sustain their enterprise.

Monetization

SMTs also enable the monetization of a web property through reward sharing. Reward sharing enables application developers to take a percentage of the STEEM that is being distributed by the Steem blockchain through PoB to the content creators, benefiting from the use of their application. DTube is one example of an application already taking advantage of this feature on Steem, and this same capability will exist within SMTs.

User Growth

Just like with STEEM, Proof-of-Brain within an SMT gives people an opportunity to join a community and be rewarded for the activities and energy that they bring to the community. This leads to the positive feedback loop mentioned before, which turbocharges growth.

SMTs are Business Oriented

SMTs are designed from the ground up to be business oriented. No matter what kind of internet project an entrepreneur is thinking about launching, SMTs will enable them to bolster their ability to fundraise, monetize their valuable community, and offer rewards that autonomously grow that community. These are the key concerns of every business operator and SMTs will offer solutions to them, with lower barriers to entry than ever before.

The Future

Ultimately I believe that Steem is still young and small, relative to where it will be in the future. Steemit and the Steem ecosystem are built on a number of new concepts that have the potential to explode across the internet. There are only a small number of bottlenecks to resolve before we as a community will have the opportunity to exploit the asymmetric growth opportunities that Communities and SMTs will bring.

At Steemit, we are committed to staying focused on eliminating those critical bottlenecks, continuing to hire A+ talent, and maintaining high standards. I believe that Steem is the next big thing on the internet, and I think we can all be really excited and proud of this very meaningful project in which we are all taking part.

Ned Scott, CEO of Steemit

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Its funny it really is something completely new to people, keeping it as user-friendly as possible will go a long way.

I feel like many of us who have spent a lot of time in the blockchain space and here on Steem already have gotten so used to it that they completely have forgotten how difficult it all seems in the eye of a newcomer. Steem is one of the few that makes it so much simpler for them to get into it.

Sure thing!
Easy to enter, hard to master usually is a recipe for a good technology.

Yes exactly. People are also very ignorant to new Tech. It takes weeks to learn how to drive a car. Learning all about Steemit is a way faster process and easier. People are entitled and take it for granted that Tech should be as easy as other stuff that they have become used to.

that is not the problem ... learning is learned ... the topic is what they already have very clear about what this platform is about and they give it a purpose different from that of its creation ... as for example the powerful ones dedicate to the sale of votes ... further increasing the bad distribution of wealth within steemit

No. This is capitalism. Also it creates new value that didn't exist before. Whoever takes advantage of capitalism by work harder and smarter will benefit.

I think the more correct term should be "bureaucratized capitalism" based upon a wealth distribution system that is monetarily politicized at it's best.

What? This was a very confusing comment, but I see you gave yourself a nice self upvote for it haha

I do not agree ... capitalism seems perfect to me and I defend it ... another thing is to abuse the resources that the blockchain gives you ... in this way, if that does not change, and if a better distribution is not made of wealth steemit will end up dying ... in any case if you see it as capitalism is its bad part

It will not end up dying that is impossible. The whole world is looking for a service like this. STEEM will probably be worth $1500 a coin in the near future. No other service comes close right now. Surely no system is perfect but this works for now and it constantly is becoming better and more people are getting involved.

Absolutely agree, I've been in the space just over a year and it took a second to get over the curve. Really happy to be with Appics as US Ambassador to make this learning curve practically gone. Soo much on the way. Happy to be part of the community.

Weldone sir

I actually do understand, well I don't know for others.... Some of use are so used to getting things the hard way that why no matter how tasky it is here some we just keep pushing but now that steemit is user-friendly we are grateful and hope we grow up like the big guys here even if not up to at least close to where we can stand on our own

Quite difficult in thr beginning but highly doable with time and dedication

That would explain the dismal retention rates ~13%.

1 million sign-ups doesn't mean much when you throw that into the mix, does it? I think its embarrassingly low. If I was a lead developer, I'd try to address that. But so far, I see a lot of talk and not a lot of action producing real results.

Prove me wrong, but I'm not holding my breath.

Imagine the retention rate of Bitcoiners in 2013 :)

That's a bizarre analogy. Bitcoin isn't a extremely-gated token that has a massive float like Steem.

It also doesn't have a parasitic ecosystem of voting/follow bots.

Steemit is doomed without some substantial changes, and the metrics out there show its absolutely horrible at doing what its defined to do -- get people interacting, and keeping them there.

totally agree ... it's good not to be the only one who thinks

Not really that bizarre considering the FUD and ignorance that existed at the time for Bitcoin and blockchain tech in general. I'm sure you agree many of the early adopters of Bitcoin were just as parasitic as those existing on Steem making it as unfair as possible.

Again, you missed the points in my prior post.

Perhaps re-read it, I don't have time to guide you through it again.

as a newcomer I have to say when you come here, you have to learn a lot about the upvote system, curation and author rewards, ranking, how everything is calculated, steem power, two kind of coins. I would compare Steem to some kind of Text RPG game where you have to learn a lot to be successful

Good point but like with any new business you have to learn something before you can expect to get paid.

To be candid, it is really amazing keeping 'User friendly'. Evidently, the intentions are genuine and it is truly decentralized

of course, it will.

May i say i simply just like your name? ;D

The first day I was here it felt like a time loop, as if I jumped several months, so quickly I familiarized with the way all works here.
Just recently I visited the Facebook interface once more, and I tell you, the energy felt sooo outdated and antediluvian. I immediately shut the website down so outdated it felt.

So in a way, the change from facebook to Steemit was a change from the majority to the minority, but once in, the minority feels like the majority, or should I say we are a conglomerate of powerful Souls which can literally move houses? ;)

I feel the same about opening up the Instagram app. You know that nothing exciting can happen after you post something. It's like a Sahara desert. It's not at the cutting edge anymore. No excitement. We are where the cool stuff is happening. Instagram is so 2012. Facebook is so 2010. YouTube is so 2009.

I feel the same way. It feels almost vestigial, I open Instagram out of habit, scroll a bit and then ask myself what the heck I'm doing. On behalf of the Steemit Team, thanks for your great comments!

For the Chinese version of this post,
https://steemit.com/cn-reader/@cn-reader/steem-steemit-smts
内德讲话: Steem, Steemit和 SMTs

I wish they were a little more open about expected timeline. The fact that they aren't makes me concerned that it isn't a pretty timeline, but it also could be that they want to be ready and then pounce from out of nowhere to cause an explosion of hype. I hope that is what is happening though; I'm hoping they are launched within Q3 2018.

GoPax, the Korean exchange, not to be confused with the thoroughly underrated Kevin Spacey/Jeff Bridges film, K-pax :)

At 5:02, why did you pay the bottom right node, even though they clearer weren't keeping up with the ledger. Who did they bribe to get a free pass??

Great post! I appreciate your efforts to ramp up the visibility of the Steem blockchain! Thanks for the detailed information! Resteem

The steem blockchain success will beat some of our wildest imaginations in no distant time from the look of things. The future we envisage might even be closer than we think.

With SMTs the value of steem will only increase the more because the demand for steem is gonna be sky high. I am quite positive and happy to be here. It is better late than never.

Another great speech from Ned, well done!)

The SMT protocol will launch with ICO capabilities?

How is this not going to bring the SEC to close down steemit?

Steemit has nothing to do with SMT's that decide to create ICO's, it's just a front-end to the blockchain.

Those creating the SMT's are the ones that need to make sure they are not creating securities and be prepared for the law.

uhuh. Sure, it has nothing to do with that.

Except to facilitate the ICO.

I'm sure the government will understand and not raid the company, shut it down or anything like that.

I sure hope that there is some strong explanation to people doing these ICO's on what their responsibilities are to the SEC.

Saying Steemit facilitates ICO's = The internet does as well. Look at ETH ever?

Steem the blockchain will facilitate them as far as I understand.

Nice upvote trail btw, its almost as if you want readers to believe that many users agree with you.

so many opportunities coming from steem

I love the idea of smt but, I dont see why it is good to need steempower to run an smt. If a small business man comes around and wants to built his community in the future he requires hell of a lot money when Steem would be 1000$. This favors already big early players and rich companies. Or will the bandwidth/steempower scale with steem prices?

  • all SMTs function on top of the steem blockchain. and in order to communicate or do anything with the steem blockchain, you need bandwidth. steem or steempower gives you that bandwidth. more SMTs -> more traffic -> higher steem price.
  • a small businessman has no incentive to launch his own SMT. you gotta have enough followers/subscribers/influence so that when you create your own SMT, people are willing to trade it. you gotta be able to create a token that has value, creating a whole new rewards pool. nobody in this community is big enough for that. you need outside forces to come in.
  • if steem price goes to 1000usd it means several big players have already created their SMTs and they're competing each other. it means the rewards pool has gotten significantly larger. at this point, if you're a small business or indie, it'll be easier to compete for the rewards than to create your own token.

pls correct me if i'm wrong or you disagree.

I agree that SMT is a great solution for the future. However, if SMT is to be a rival of EOS, then it needs to be launched quicker. After launching, people will still need to familiarize with it. Witnesses need to vote.

Do you not find it rather ironic that while in an extremely technically proficient country like Korea that you are subjected to use such an antiquated communication system?... like a hand held microphone, a white board and an eraser! That irony is actually funny!

Now that you point it out, it’s a funny irony. 😀

ich freue mich auf die Zukunft 🙋
Steemit ist das Beste🖒
ihr seit Super🖒

now my first target is steemit.

super comments.

Steemit is coming facebook is going form my hart.

steemit is very good social site.

Know steemit is a part of my life.

SMTs are a new piece of open source software that we are writing and submitting to the Steem github repository, where it will be either approved or rejected by the witnesses, depending on their assessment of whether or not it will compromise the security of the network, and whether the Steem community supports the idea.

Does this mean that the idea of SMT is not yet approved by the witness?

Of course not, approval by the witnesses is only asked before merging and not before starting to work on it.

Does it mean that merging is not going to be done if witnesses are against it?

Theoretically, that's true for all changes which are to come and which were merged already.

@raycoms is correct. Steem is one of the best blockchains in the world and the witnesses are there to ensure it remains that way. It is their responsibility to only accept new code that makes the protocol even better without damaging it. It is our responsibility, therefore, to prove that the code we are releasing 1. makes Steem better, and 2. does not pose a threat to it. These are healthy checks and balances

here is the urdu version made by some effort because steemit donot support urdu format, hope it helps
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@muhammadadil/ned-talks-steem-steemit-and-smts-smts-a-s-a-m-z-smts-awr-steem-steemitn-bat-t

Cannot wait to see how SMT's will effect the ecosystem as a whole. Great work!

You and me both!

Yeah, it will be extremely exciting. I have high hopes that it will improve it a lot!

I hope SMT will be another legit and different operative cryptocurrency as well !!

I love steemit .steemit is the very good social site.

Go Ned Go! should have ended the presentation with a guitar lick! That would have been epic.

Lets hope steem will grow big over the internet and be used in various websites over the world. It's really an interesting idea.

I think Steemit will continue to grow because investors can get a good return here may ways, for example: leasing their steem power and content creators can get paid for their content if they stick around long enough to build a following and learn to play the game. There are a lot of tricks to being paid to author posts, read posts and comment or curation and you even make money curating comments. Its a game, so we must learn the rules to play well and benefit. How long have you been active in Steemit?

I really want to expose the function of Steemit to my partners. Here in Venezuela is being a good platform to make money in big...

Hola Maikelblogi,
Hay comunidades españolas en Steemit, que buscan apoyar y alentar a los escritores hispanohablantes. ¿Has oído hablar de La Unión o Cervantes?

you can't compare it even to Facebook, on Steemit you get money for posting and on Facebook they take your personal information and sell it, to make money for them

What will be truly the test is when the other, more mainstream social media platforms launch their own blockchain. Steemit has the jump, the followers, who are adamant about it and love it. Great info @ned the more transparent, the better, the more integrated it becomes the further it flies.

It's really great to see you in S. Korea. SteemIt is getting hotter and hotter in Korea. I'm trying to integrate Steem rewarding ecosystem with my new mobile App/Web service.
Is there any way to reach out directly to you to discuss about it?

I hope you are able to contact @ned, perhaps you can reach out to him on Steemit chat also.
If you are interested I wrote him a letter, which included several interesting facts about the Korea market, which may help you in your presentation.

당신이 @ned
당신이 관심이 있다면 나는 그에게 편지를 썼다. 여기에는 한국 시장에 관한 몇 가지 흥미로운 사실들이 포함되어 있는데, 그것은 당신의 발표에서 당신을 도울 수있다.

그의 게시물에 대한 내 답변은 다음과 같습니다

좋은 아침,

나는이 지위가 한국에서 좋은 건강과 행복한 영혼에서 당신을 찾길 바래!
나는 당신의 한국 여행에 대해 "아침의 고요한 땅"을 듣고 기쁘게 생각합니다. 한국의 아름다움과 유명한 한국의 환대를 즐기시기 바랍니다! 나는 한국 국민들이 한국의 사람들이 크립토 통화에 대해 매우 열렬하다는 것과 Steemit이 한국에서 특히 많은 거래량을 가지고 있다고 읽었습니다. Steemit의 CEO가 개인적으로 한국을 방문하여 Steemit에 대한 소식과 현재 Steemit 프로젝트에 대한 소식을 전한 소식은 멋진 소식입니다. 나는 너 자신과 같은 위대한 사람의 방문이 한국에 대한 인식을 가져 왔다고 믿는다. 당신은 그들을 훌륭한 파트너라고 생각한다. 이것은 매우 인정 받고 크게 감사할만한 것입니다. cryptocurrency가 기존의 긍정적 인 가치와 조화를 이루면서 선진 기술 사상을 활용하려고 시도한다는 사실은 한국과 다른 나라들에게는 손실되지 않습니다. cryptocurrency blockchain의 아름다움 중 하나는 동일한 우산 아래에 많은 성공적인 파트너 국가를위한 공간이 있으며 Steemit은 공유 된 번영이라는 개념을 상징한다고 믿습니다. 나는 매일 매일의 생각으로 취했다. "다른 사람들이 번영하도록 도우며 Steemit에서 우리는 또한 번영하도록 도우므로 우리가 세상에 보내는 좋은 것들이 우리에게 많은 것을 되돌려줍니다.

나는 당신에게 생산적이고 재미 있고 건강한 여행을 기원합니다.

@shortsegments

P.S.
한국에서의 그의 회담 중 하나는 다음과 같다.
https://steemit.com/kr/@innovit/ned-ned-s-talk

한국에서의 또 다른 이야기는 다음과 같습니다.
https://steemit.com/kr/@ned/at-the-gopax-steemit-meetup?sort=new#comments

steemit steemit a moving business, a family can run stealthily, who steemit regularly, they will not have any problems with their life, if they can always be careful, there will be no problem running the life.

Hi Qurrom,
Does your family blog on Steemit? Thats great!
How long have you been on Steemit?
What important things would you tell a new person?

Ned has excelent public speech skills. Smooth and calm. To the point.

Great info and welcome to the beginning of Steem!

We appreciate the communication. Keep it coming! We all like to stay informed and look to back Steem for the long haul.

KEEP IT COOKIN' !!

DTube is one example of an application already taking advantage of this feature on Steem, and this same capability will exist within SMTs.

Apparently, more applications will be come onboard courtesy of the release of SMTs.
Though it is taking too long.
Great job @ned

I really hope proof of brain becomes a much more popular way of doing a social business model. If we promote intelligence in the workplace and in ourselves I dont think we will have any more Donalds or George’s running around pretending like they know how to run the free world. Thanks @ned for the opportunity too expand as a conscious human race.

We are waiting for you @ned

Come to Jakarta, Indonesia, please

20180413_233426.png

Thanks you sir for this wonderful information we many never knew about I feel so happy for this break down detail.
Steemit is the best and always be the best

@ned is really an amazing person. He always has innovative ideas. Thank you for showing us that we can always do better.

Hey, @steemitblog this is wonderful post for steemit.and this video is so good and helpful tutorial. thanks for share this post @ned.

a very detailed explanation and I enjoyed reading about the growth and safety of steemit. hopefully steemit continues to grow.

Best regards @jubagarang

A very detailed explanation on Steem and Steemit...
This must be very useful for us all...

Thanks for this very valuable post... Hope @ned always healthy and happy there...☕❤

Thanks for this information it is great to hear from the man at the top how things work. How is the platform growth progressing. Can you direct me to where I can see there numbers please?

Steemit is the best thing that has happened to me. I love steemit. Together we rule the world..

Interesting, so businesses will be able to launch their own tokens through these SMT's, just like you would with Ethereum..

Is this something that will be released in 2018 still? Or over the next couple of years?

I ❤️ how graceful + respectful @ned is to the Korean people. Every video I see of him make me even more impressed with him, and thankful that I've switched over to Steemit as my main blog and 'social network' and (only 7 days new) I've been experiencing amazing interaction & community with everyone here on the Steemit platform.

Welcome! All of us at Steemit are extremely impressed with how open minded the Korean people are especially with respect to cryptocurrencies.

  • Content Director, Steemit

I'm excited about the new SMT innovation. @ned us really working hard on growing the steem community. The sky is the starting point

I learned a lot from your post and learned
Which was awkwardly awkward ... Such a teaching post is very important for our newcomer
From where it is better known about steemit....
thanks a lot..

It incredible what steemit has done in 2 short years. The fist app to use the SMT already exists and it is only a question of time until Steem will become bigger than bitcoin. Thank you @ned for the detailed explanation and the amazung initative that will change the face of the internet.

Excited for the future of Steemit !

Great to see some updates/clarifications! This is very exciting news. Keep em coming! Steem is still young and it’s really exciting to be an early adopter in such a self propelling boosting system! 🌿💙🌹

I am interested to see how the SMTs work out. I have faith that the witnesses will be good about vetting them appropriately but this makes me think of the December/January gold rush of minor ICOs, most (but not all) of which are now stalled in value with little indication that the developers are actually making any progress. I see STEEM retaining its value because multiple viable products are dependent on it and our content creation literally adds value to it. While I understand the concept (or at least I think I do), I’m worried that this could really go either way. But hey, this site turned out to be a pretty brilliant idea, so maybe I should have more faith.

At the moment this system works and it's a 100% working product. No other service is even close to have this right now. Steemit is 2 years ahead the competition. And it will only compound at the speed they are now going.

Yep, that’s why I said:

I see STEEM retaining its value because multiple viable products are dependent on it and our content creation literally adds value to it.

My concern is that there may be unintended consequences and collateral damage from the SMTs, but I could certainly be wrong.

Well since it's only code it would be able to be tweaked.

Amen!

It's always good to be thinking about the potential negative consequences or side effects @malloryblythe! We're confident the potential benefits will greatly outweigh the risks. The risks are extremely small. One useful example is to imagine the worst SMT possible. The worst SMT possible is one that has no value and no transactions. The cost of such an SMT to the Steem blockchain is exactly zero. A bad token is one that no one cares about. They don't want to use it and they don't want to earn it. But as I said, this doesn't cost the blockchain anything. The only SMTs that will consume a meaningful amount of blockchain resources are the successful ones and the bandwidth rate limiting algorithm ensures that if they get to that point they will have to power up more STEEM into Steem Power. The other aspect of SMTs that I think is the most underrated is the insights everyone will be able to gain from all the experimentation that will be happening. Yes, you're right, many SMTs will likely fail, but from the successes (the failures too) we will all gain valuable information. Thanks so much for the kind words regarding this platform we've spent the last two years of our lives building, as well as your constructive concerns.

Andrew Levine
Content Director, Steemit

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for responding, and for creating such an awesome platform!

Like the post and bookmarked it for future reference as well. Plainly said I feel parts of it are beyond me at the moment, the post however is worth rereading at several stages as other things start to become clearer.

I had a hiatus for awhile and just digging back into crypto community... digging deeper than the surface I barely begun to scratch previously... Thanks for the read

well it's a new science and way of living, many of us in the same boat where we have to master all these knowledge

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