This article is part of a series in which I try to translate from Geek to English the SMT (Smart Media Tokens) white paper. The first two articles are:
- How To Deploy Your Own Smart Media Token On The Steem Blockchain - The SMT White Paper Series, Ep. One
- The Role Of Automated Market Makers For Smart Media Tokens - The SMT White Paper Series, Ep. Two
Today I'm trying to outline the benefits, or the use cases, of SMTs, along with some caveats and limitations not clearly exposed in the white paper.
1. Content Publishers: Bloggers, Authors, Photographers, Videobloggers
If you already have an online presence, you can leverage SMTs to engage your audience. In this case you will probably brand your token and try to make it original. Like a DROUA token, for instance. You will have your own Steemit-on-demand layer of functionality on top of your blog, it will literally be a shell over the Steem blockchain.
2. Forums / Communities
If you run a forum (bitcointalk, anyone?) you could use SMTs to incentivize people to contribute. In the white paper, this use case is about "multiple token support", which basically means you can have a generic token, MYFORUM, and then each sub-community can have its own token, MYGARDENING. In this setup, posts could be rewarded with all the available tokens of the forum. This use case blends with the no. 4 use case of the white paper, " Sub-Community Moderators and Managers", it's basically the same setup.
3. Widget Comments
The closest thing to this is the (in)famous Facebook widget comments we've see in so many websites. In this case I expect some UI parameters to be present, to make the widget customizable for your blog / site color scheme.
4. Arbitrary Assets
SMTs can also be used for arbitrary assets, or tokens you raise not necessarily for a content publishing platform but for a different type of business. In this case, you will probably not implement voting, or curation rewards, because this may not be useful, but you will work more complex vesting schemes for your investors.
5. Metalanguages
This use case is not present in the white paper, is just something that popped into my mind. For now it's just an idea, but I'm curious if this will actually come to life. Imagine you issue a token for a co-working place, like a real co-working place. Then you set up a card access system in your co-working place and link it to that token. Like, when somebody enters, they have to publish "In", as a Proof of Entrance. Then when they get out, they must publish "Out", as a Proof of Exit. Of course, this publishing may be masked under a QR code scanning or something. And for each action they publish, they may get some sort of rewards, by means of upvoting (and then curation, etc). The idea is that, because of the publishing features inside SMTs (rewards for content, rewards for curation), these SMTs can be soon integrated in some sort of metalanguages, or stuff that you inscribe in the blockchain as a Proof of Something and then use the rewards feature to generate liquidity. Of course, this use case sounds quite far fetched now, but how knows?
Caveats and Limitations
- in order to use SMT, one must have an account on the Steem blockchain. Irrespective of the fact that you're issuing tokens for a content publishing platform or for arbitrary assets. This is the most obvious, but probably the most overlooked caveat of SMTs. So even if you start your own token outside of the Steemit.com website, your commenters should have an account on Steemit. This caveat really puts in perspective the announcement in which "Steemit has partnered with SteemConnect". The ability to create accounts fast and reliably is fundamental for the spread of SMTs outside of the Steemit.com realm.
- the posts / comments / forum replies will have only a 7 days editing window and then will be immutably stored in the blockchain, which means they can't be edited anymore. Of course, if you control the UI of your blog / community / forum, you may choose which to show and which to hide from the blockchain, but the actual information will be there for as long as the blockchain will exist and everybody will be able to look it up with a block explorer.
- the storage and editing parameters above will be subject to decisions outside your control. If witnesses on the Steem blockchain decide to shorten the editing time period, or to store the data in a different container, you won't be able to do anything about it. Obviously, if you use Facebook comments, or Disquss, you're basically in the same situation - you can't control content stored outside of your own platform - just wanted to point that out.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me 
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If you're new to Steemit, you may find these articles relevant (that's also part of my witness activity to support new members of the platform):