STEEM: Smart Contracts And Token Creation Are Now Live

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No, the SMT protocol is not released. That is still slated to go fully live in March.

However, yesterday it was announced that Steemians now have smart contract capability available to them while also being able to create their own tokens.

It is something that is very similar to the ERC20 protocol on Ethereum.

We now are able to use Steem Smart Contracts (SSC). It was announced by @harpagon and is another example of how Steemians are doing things outside the development team. Here is a situation where an individual provided token creation and smart contracts.

According to his post, the SSC is akin to a sidechain.

The project is called Steem Smart Contracts (SSC), it is what I like to call, the Steem sidechain. The all purpose of that is to be able to deploy smart contracts on the Steem blockchain and be able to interact with them. This sidechain is actually a blockchain coupled to a database but I'll talk about it more in a few lines.

This is an interesting alternative to the SMT protocol that the development team is working upon.

So why is this important?

The Smart Media Token allows people to basically create another STEEM. Applications that create a token will be essentially creating their own version of STEEM. That is one of the attractive features of this protocol. It gives people a great deal more than what the ERC20 protocol does.

There is a trade off. One must remember that STEEM is a specialized blockchain and the SMT will operate within the parameters of their design. This could be limiting to some depending upon what they are looking to do.

This is where Steem Smart Contracts enter the picture. If one choose to use this, he or she is free to do whatever is desired with the token. This will be just like creating a token on Ethereum using that protocol. One most likely will be sacrificing the DEX, built in wallet system, and automatic pairing with STEEM. Again, if one is looking to do something outside the parameters of mirroring STEEM, it could be a viable choice.

To what you will reply, but wait? aren't you talking about the SMTs? hmmm. not really, the SMTs are going to be tokens that will be based on the proof of brain consensus, they are Steem alikes and they will follow the same characteristics (in term of algorithm) but with a Smart Contract you can create whatever token you want, that will follow the characteristics you want to implement.

More technical information is contained in the post including how to set up the smart contracts.

https://steemit.com/smartcontracts/@harpagon/you-can-now-issue-your-own-token-on-the-steem-blockchain

This is a rather amazing development and one that flew under the radar. We know what the smart contract capability did for the Ethereum blockchain. The fact that people can generate tokens that tie into the STEEM ecosystem is amazing.

It is good to see another layer of decentralization added in that people are free to use whatever characteristics they desire. I also find it interesting how the post talks about how specific those parameters can be within the smart contract. This is something that I do not believe will be available with the SMTs.

I felt SMTs would make the STEEM blockchain a token factory. It seems we have that ability a bit sooner than expected.

If nothing else, it is great to have alternatives.

Each day, things keep evolving with the STEEM ecosystem. The next 6 months are going to be a lot of fun.

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