How to launch an SMT token properly?
Dear steemians,
Right now, I am musing on the topic of SMTs like so many others. It is great to see all the angles that people are taking on the topic. All we got right now is speculation since we don't have the thing working in front of us. But I wanted to talk about something that we can consider right now and even plan for...namely:
How to Launch an SMT token properly?
Like so many other products, the launch of something can have an incredible impact on it's success. Launching an SMT will be cheap ($1 SBD) but that doesn't mean that it should be treated as such.
Here are the factors that should be considered before launching an SMT
1. Why would people want to hold on to my Smart Media Token?
The #1 reason why people hold on to any token is the expectation of future value. As long as the hope is there, some people will hold on to it.
For people to have expectation of future value, you must sell a vision of what this token is about.
Where there is no vision, the people perish - Proverb 29:18
So what kind of vision a token can have? Well now, we have countless of example of what is possible. We've seen tokens like dogecoin and kekcoin being mostly based on their "meme" power.
There is also the community based token such as the one of the Let's Talk Bitcoin Show the LTBCoin that is earned via participation on their website.
Owning a certain amount of those coins can unlock special features of websites or content but fundamentally, these are not the tokens that people hold on to like grimdeath.
The token that people hold on to the most are the one attached to technology and utility. A Platform such as ZAPPL can have their own token where they focus on growing a large userbase that use their token and distribute it massively.
Since the SMTs will have the choice of to set to what degree SteemPower will affect rewards, there is the possibility to create truly independent silos of distribution and influence. I think, for example, that if ZAPPL rewards were independent from STEEMPOWER there would be a "gold rush" to be positioned as power player on their platform, invest and join early. Giving a new chance to those people who weren't there at the beginning of steemit.com
2. Economics
So what will be the economics of the token? Will there be a short supply with minimum inflation? Will there be small supply and massive inflation?
Knowing what is the best setting for your particular use case is very important and that's not something you can easily change once that is set.
3. Distribution
STEEM solves the biggest problem of all when it comes to distributing a token. ICOs and mining and sharedrops were the most common form of distribution scheme that we had before. But now, we have a much more powerful way to distribute tokens: upvotes!
Of course, you can combine multiple of those strategy simultaneously for increase impact.
An ICO helps a lot since you have time to build expectation, build a community, build an expectation of it's price on the market while the hype is growing. You can even build a steem community (community feature coming soon) while they are waiting for the launch.
4. Build a Team and be Transparent
People like to see real people working on a project. This increase the trust that people have in you carrying the project at hand.
5. Have good design
Have a website, FAQ and all the bells and whistle people expect when they are looking at a project.
Conclusion
There are a lot of ways an SMT could be launched and usecases that are outside of my imagination right now. If you think that I've missed anything, please make sure to let me know in the comment below how you would launch an SMT yourself.
Thanks for this. These tips are going to come in very handy as people plan for the best way to utilize these SMTs. I am trying to read as much as I can on the subject and your posts are a great help.
So it can be implemented on any current or future creative contents website??
This is amazing and t gives everyone equal chance to advance . I can't wait to create a creative coin and see others as well. I know I'm long term it will rise just like Steem. I see a lot of potential
will you open octopus coin?:)
i think important thing is name of coin and abbreviation , because people easy can remember name of coin if its easy to pronounce and have some meaning to it.
Oh man. That would be great! You should totally do it!
I like the way you think ;-)
Octo-Coin
The squidward coin.
Great post
I will make one for all us Off Griders .... Offgrid-Coin. ... OGC I already have the website all set up
Is Offgrid-Coin an oxymoron?
All these coins will be created and without the grid they will be inaccessible .... so they will be able to grow without ever being redeemed. Unlike the Bitcoins we all had and sold at the wrong time.
lol
That is hilarious :)
Yes.
OGC, where "always be HODLing" isn't just a good idea. It's the law!
HODLing is the only Option
Exactly ... there is no way out
When you buy off-grid coin and want to sell...
actually, there is automatic liquidity based on bancor tech. No need for a buyer when you want to sell!
Never sell ever
But from what I recall from the whitepaper the price is controlled by automated market maker algorithms. So just because there is a buyer dosen't mean it will be at a price you want to sell. If you're having problems selling a million STEEM I'll be happy to buy them from you for 1¢ each 😀
Liquidity can also mean you're in a life raft at sea thinking "water water everywhere and not a drop to drink"
Perfect
Let's do this .... it will be bigger than Bitcoin
From what I understand, any SMT will be a kind of rebranded version of Steem, whereby the performance of one affects the performance of the other. If that is correct, then you get the opportunity to be a mini-CEO of Steemit - but for your own website.
One thing to bare in mind is that all currency - including fiat 'legal tender' currencies are really only backed by belief in their value. This means that when comparing them for which is 'the best' - in many cases there really is no best because they are all essentially valueless. In some cases, there are tangible benefits to some as compared to others - such as Steem's high efficiency level and speed of transaction.
To successfully launch an SMT means understanding how your SMT is going to provide VALUE above and beyond the long list of other tokens and that requires creativity and attention to detail.
Where SMT performance affects STEEM performance really depends on what people do with that token. If they sell it for STEEM they need STEEM which drives to STEEM demand and price. If they then sell the STEEM for another coin or fiat they send the price down. Even so I believe that is what is called increasing the velocity of the currency and that drives up the price (I think). But the whitepaper does actually talk about the scenario where an SMT has no effect on STEEM price.
One effect I wish did propagate from STEEM to tokens and perhaps back is reputation. While I would expect a 1:1 translation I feel like there are many aspects of reputation that do translate 1:1. Others may be community and content specific. Someone who is an expert in astrology may know jack-**** about science and would have no inherent science based reputation. And visa versa of course. No astrology SMT wants some highly reputable scientist barging in and down voting all their content.
But reputation also has aspects like are you an annoying bot and do you post spam or so you troll incessantly. These probably translate across all communities (although what one community considers trolling can vary). And of course people may not want to maintain identity between STEEM and a SMT token. I have to admit I wasn't paying attention when I read the whitepaper but I think it is assumed identity is distinct for ever SMT. That is I'm not a STEEM user who owns multiple types of SMT tokens, I'm multiple users, distinct and separate.
I haven't finished reading the whitepaper, but I did finish reading the whitepaper for the bancor protocol which another commenter said that SMTs were partially based on. In their system, the new currencies have a value that is inter-related to the base currency (Steem, in this case). However, SMTs may not be using the same principles.
Reputation is a key issue, yes, I agree - I posted about that with regards SMTs already.
Interesting. I was working on a post about reputation too but decided it needed some diagrams and didn't get around to doing any. It was basically an elaboration on what I said above. Maybe having reputation was considered so obvious they didn't include it? But I would say it is essential. Allowing a token to (optionally) inherit or seed its base reputation from STEEM or another token would be great IMO and allow minimizing of trolling and spam.
In the back of my mind I recall hearing how reputation was a function of Steemit rather than Steem - but I might be mistaken.
I think you are probably right since there is only one mention of "reputation" in the Steem whitepaper https://steem.io/SteemWhitePaper.pdf and it is not about the reputation we are talking about. I suppose that SMT using sites could still look at reputation on Steem or elsewhere - if they can positively correlate two identities across the networks.
Also came across this post that explains the logarithmic calculation of reputation and that is stored on the blockchain: https://steemit.com/steemit/@digitalnotvir/how-reputation-scores-are-calculated-the-details-explained-with-simple-math
I take that to confirm what I said, that any external app could query your reputation if it can confirm your id - presumably via something you sign with one of your keys that would verify your id.
This brings up a further issue that needs clarification. Do sites that operate SMTs require their users to have a steem user id (that could be used to login to steemit, for example) - or not. I imagine that such a username/id would be required, but I haven't seen anything about mechanisms for perhaps autocreating the names for people who are members of your site, but not of steem/steemit.
Additionally, there is the question of whether posts to your site will be visible in Steemit or not - which is something else I haven't seen mentioned anywhere that I have looked yet.
Good points.
I think this is going to be a VERY interesting development.
Kinda looking forward to the Frank coin if ya know what I meme ; )
Thanks.. Do you own a franking business? :)
All of the methods listed by you can be tried, but I would start with the fifth method and developed an excellent design at the beginning. Thank you @cryptoctopus
@cryptoctopus,
Few years back I had an idea to launch my own coin (not a coin scam like lots of ICO did), but I had no back up at that time! Anyway, now everything is here and I think I could start my work! Moreover, here I can see a strong community support also! Specially people like you can help technical wise! Thank you very much for sharing such useful information! Really appreciate your work friend!
Cheers~
Need little more explanation how to do it and why $1 SBD is required to launch SMT?
It's usually just an Initial Coin Offering that does the trick. Kind of like a crowd funding campaign. I explain it more in depth HERE if you want to read up.
Thank you
there is a price to the network to create an asset.