In my last article I was criticised for promoting Smart Media Token projects who want to build on the Steem-based technology which is not yet released. They have great concepts but are investments into future technology. It is a very hot topic and while many people are excited others are sceptical if Steemit will deliver the test network in time. The mood is low during this bear market and Steemits roadmap is vague to say it generously.
Where Is The Steem Hardfork?
Part of the problem is the slow development of Steem and Steemit. The upcoming Hardfork 20, codename Velocity is long overdue. It promises to change a lot. Much HAS to change. The last Hardfork 19 happened on June 20 last year!
With it the long awaited Communities, codename Hivemind, are finally allowing users to create their own communities on Steemit based around a community account. That will simplify the process for people to come together and find the content based on the niche they are looking for. And it will increase the activity and endurance of members who often otherwise give up after a few weeks of near zero upvotes.
They also want to simplfy the registration process to allow more new users to come in. They would then finally be able to open the floodgates to their million dollar marketing budget which has not been touched so far while Steemit is growing organically.
SMT Development Slow
At the same time they are building the SMT technology and they want to make that good so they have not released any time frame. Everyone is getting impatient as the promises have been huge and the expectations even higher.
It is a patience game and the market is eager to deliver solutions for niches to create new ecosystems outside of Steem. It is rather difficult to distribute high upvotes into communities on Steem as they all need to be funded by whale power and Steem is already relatively expensive and by far not disributed into enough hands. An SMT can change the ratio entirely anew and make it fit for their own ecosystem, allowing for a flourishing content creation where people will find their audiences much easier.
Steem and SMTs have Mutual Benefits!
You need Steem to buy into SMT ICOs. This drives traffic to the Steem blockchain which is hopefully similar beneficial as it was for Ethereum to have all these tokens on it.
SMTs require Steem Power bandwidth for transactions instead of fees as they are using the Steem network and don't need their own servers or blockchain development. That makes it much easier for projects as they can concentrate entirely on their product. At the same time people are incentivized to hold sufficient Steem for having enough bandwidth for posting, commenting and so on.
SMTs can lock away some of the generated funding in Steem for an on-blockchain automated marked maker enabling immediate liquidity to the SMT via Steem at a specified reserve ratio.
Conclusion
Personally, I am trusting that Steemit will deliver both the hardfork as well as the SMTs as fast as they can. In the meantime the SMT platforms can develop their products and test it with Steem instead. I think the direction is crystal clear and the potential massive. Good things take time.
And if you invest keep in mind that you always risk your money so be smart about it and don't invest more than you can't afford to loose.