Image was taken of the official Steem website. Text was edited
STEEM is one of the greatest blockchains in the world.
It has a high-block frequency (every 3s) that is needed for fast transactions.
It has no fees on transactions - besides bandwidth.
It has an incredible ecosystem of dapps built around and on top of it. (dtube, dlive, utopian, steemmonsters, smartsteem etc).
It utilizes delegated proof of stakes - where 20 witnesses and over 150 backup witnesses who are voted in by the stake-holders, are producing blocks & keep the consensus for the blockchain in check.
And most importantly: it has an incredible community which makes it easy to kickstart new projects. Simply create a great post - promote & advertise it with services like Smartsteem.com and nearly everyone that is active on STEEM will be able to see it.
Now, on top of that - there will be SMTs (Smart Media Tokens) available soon (similar to Ethereum's ERC20 tokens), which will allow anyone to create & fundraise (via ICO) their own token that works like STEEM, but can be set up with different parameters. For example: dtube can have their own dtube-SMT or 3rd party blogs & communities can monetise their content with its own SMT.
While I personally really like the idea of SMTs and believe that they will increase the value of STEEM - I do think that there is still something missing in STEEM.
Smart Contracts
When I first became really interested and one could say even obsessed with cryptocurrencies & blockchain-technology in August '17 - one of the major points that fascinated me, were Smart Contracts.
A Smart Contract is basically code that is 1.) running on the blockchain, 2.) executed when a specific function is called, 3.) which does something when specified circumstances are met and in addition to 4.) being visible for all participants.
And as a result - people are able to trust that this smart-contract actually does what it promises. So when a smart-contract is supposed to trade SBD for STEEM when the ratio is 1:1 - and a review of the code confirms that, you can be 100% sure that whoever utilizes that smart-contract, will trade your SBD for STEEM, as soon as the ratio is 1:1.
Now, other code which is not implemented as a smart-contract on an open-source blockchain, doesn't give that guarantee. Whoever maintains the program which has the code implemented could change it around - and you'd never really know.
I hope you can understand me now, when I say: Smart Contracts are incredible and super important.
And luckily, Smart Contracts are already available on STEEM.
Smart Contracts are already on STEEM
In the case of STEEM - the convert SBD to STEEM function is basically a smart contract. This contract will convert a specified amount of SBD after 3 Days into STEEM based on USD.
The contract currently looks like this: Code on Github
For someone like me who doesn't have a lot of knowledge in c++, the code is difficult to read but even more difficult to write.
So while STEEM currently has the ability for smart contracts - they have to be written in c++ in addition to being added to the Steem-repository, which is not good enough for app developers.
Why does STEEM need Smart Contracts?
You may wonder know: why do we need Smart Contracts on STEEM for app-developers?
Well, the answers to that is actually quite simple - but there are multiple reasons.
STEEM is an amazing blockchain (as explained in the beginning), but there are many other blockchains who are great as well. Some lack in areas that STEEM is better at and some are better in areas that STEEM lacks in. And some areas - STEEM doesn't even cover: for example 3rd-Party Smart Contracts.
This creates a scenario where app-developers might really prefer to build the app on STEEM, but aren't able to due to missing Smart Contracts and thus choose another plattform (like EOS or Ethereum).
Now, let me give you guys an example of an app, which is actually already on STEEM but would require Smart Contracts on STEEM to run even better and to be actually a decentralised app (as of right now - it's pretty much a hybrid).
Steem Monsters
We all know the genius idea of 
It's a fun & addicting game in addition to being an incredible smart business model.
However, it is not a true decentralised game and for now, not a true alternative to Crypto Kitties.
Why? Well. Crypto Kitties utilized smart-contracts on Ethereum. Which means: all important logic regarding to Crypto Kitties were on the blockchain, implemented as smart contracts.
When somebody bought a Crypto-Kitty from another user, the smart-contract on Ethereum made sure that the owner was actually changed to the new user, as everything related to Crypto-Kitties were on the blockchain.
But it's totally different with Steem Monsters.
The whole logic with Steem Monsters: what happens when you send a transfer to 
While all actions are broadcasted to the blockchain via custom_jsons afterwards, a separate database is needed to keep track of everything.
And that is dangerous.
A blockchain is an immutable database
A blockchain is simply said just an immutable database - which means: the blockchain-database is protected from malicious users trying to change data - e.g. giving myself an extra 1000 Steempower by changing a number.
In a normal database, whoever has access to that database, can login and change or replace data - and then use that data afterwards.
For example: If i would have access to Steem Monsters's database or server - I could simply maliciously change the data in that database - nobody would know and the program would use that data for future transactions until it would sync again with the blockchain.
I'm not sure how much destruction this would cause, since I don't know the source-code, but I hope you understand the problem I'm trying to explain.
Steem Monsters as Smart Contracts
Now, if STEEM had the capability of utilizing smart-contracts from app-developers, every card could be a smart contract and that smart-contract would have different variables: unique-code, owner, name etc.
Example
When a user (X) would want to sell a card to somebody else (XX) - another smart contract could be implemented that creates an open trade, which will change owner from X to XX when a custom amount of SBD/STEEM - in this case: 50 SBD were send to X with CUSTOM BUY MEMO.
With this method - Steem Monsters would be truly decentralised and the digital ownership of cards were safe, but right now - that's sadly not the case.
STEEM needs Smart Contracts
While I'm very much aware of the fact that the priority of Steemit Inc is currently on SMTs, Communities etc. - which is important, I do think that Smart Contracts for app-developers are crucial for the success of STEEM.
I'm currently working on a decentralised game on top of STEEM and the current framework - without custom Smart Contracts - is not a enough for something which can overshadow Crypto Kitties.
Even Custom_JSONS are not enough without any way to filter based on the results.
Example:
Lets say there are accounts in the game and I want to make sure that every account is unique. I would need to broadcast a custom_json for the account_creation, but without any direct search query (incl getting the STEEM account_history and filtering for the custom parameter account_name and variable - which isn't scalable for a million accounts game) - I would have no way of being 100% sure that the name is truly unique.
I would need to rely on an external database to keep track of all data. And that is not secure nor decentralised.
And now?
My hope is that Steemit Inc sees the importance of Smart Contracts and how a plugin/module for custom Smart Contracts would benefit STEEM - so they can put dev-hours in it. (
However, as they're currently very busy with SMTs & communities - we, as a decentralised community - are currently on our own.
While I'm not a c++ programmer, I do have a background in c# and an interest of looking into it. But creating such an important module requires experience - mucho experience.
So maybe there are experienced c++ programmers under us, who are seeing the importance of custom Smart Contracts as well.
And if there are: let us know!
Feedback is most welcome
What do you think about these thoughts?
Do you believe that custom Smart Contracts are crucial for STEEM?
Please let me know in the comments below!
Wolf
