Smart Media Token Development
Fellow Steemians,
Today’s post is brought to you by the Smart Media Tokens (SMT) team. Our job is to build the protocol that will enable any entrepreneur to launch their own customizable token on the Steem blockchain and instantly gain totally new fundraising, monetization, and community-building opportunities. We’ve been hard at work for a while now, and today we’d like to give you some insight into the progress we are making.
Implementation of the SMT protocol is by far the most ambitious project Steemit has worked on since the release of Steem itself back in March of 2016. This project touches everything, including the core of the blockchain. Our team has been diligently working to complete SMTs for several months. We've grown the team by adding more A-players, so that we can complete SMTs as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality, reliability, and security.
Redesigning the Steem asset data types
One small example of the work we are doing is the reorganization and implementation of asset data types. Steem was released with the assumption that it would only ever support three asset types: STEEM, Steem Blockchain Dollars, and Steem Power. A lot of small changes are needed to progress from three assets to a practically unlimited number, while maintaining backward compatibility.
The end result will be a seamless integration of SMTs with most existing operations. This will provide the best possible UX, while minimizing the engineering costs required to integrate an SMT into existing applications. In other words, entrepreneurs won’t need to take on as much technical debt in order to use blockchain and cryptocurrency technology through the adoption of an SMT.
SMT Projects Cards Dashboard in GitHub
Efficiency through “stubbing”
Our approach to developing a feature set as rich as this is to create the skeleton first and then begin adding the meat. This is commonly referred to in software development as "stubbing." Stubbing allows us to gain a clear picture of what parts of the stack SMTs interact with, and what changes are absolutely critical for developing a release candidate, without getting bogged down in the details.
Using this process, we expect that development will look somewhat exponential, with pieces coming together in rapid succession as we get closer to a finished product. That means that it shouldn’t be long before developers will be able to start playing with SMTs on a public testnet. At a later date, we will explore in more detail how the testnet will be implemented.
Automated market makers
As an example, one piece of meat that we are working on is the automated market maker (AMM). AMMs will enable an entrepreneur launching an SMT to create instant liquidity for their token so that people can immediately begin buying and selling it while also establishing a baseline price level for that token. Leveraging the AMM is an optional feature for an SMT, but those SMTs that do use the AMM will be able to economically bootstrap themselves with a turn-key solution for providing bi-directional liquidity in the on-chain market.
Testing and code review
Bringing on additional resources has allowed us to spend more time testing and reviewing new and existing code. The safety and security of the blockchain is critical, and all code must be carefully checked by multiple developer eyeballs in addition to automated tests.
Bringing on new developers has helped us to expand our automated testing and get new eyes on the Steem codebase, which enables us to inspect safety and security from even more perspectives.
Documentation and developer tools
We’re also exploring several strategies to improve documentation, support libraries, and the developer experience. The developer community is a mission-critical part of the Steem ecosystem, and its importance will only increase once SMTs get rolling. We want to be sure that SMT creators--and all Steem ecosystem entrepreneurs--have the tools, information, and other resources they need for success.
Thinking about launching an SMT?
If you’re considering launching your own SMT, feel free to provide suggestions or requests in the comments below. If you would like to receive e-mail updates on the progress of SMTs, you can subscribe to the e-mail list here.
Team Steemit
Image credit: @voronoi
Please update us on HiveMind next. This kind of update is HIGHLY appreciated and will contribute to increase the faith of the community about the protocol.
It is sorely needed.
Silence is not golden in this case. The more information that the development team shares, at least in broad strokes, the higher the comfort level will be.
It is when months go by without communication that people start to believe the development team does not care (an absurd conclusion in my opinion but one people make).
With SMT release STEEM not only join the fabric chain but also it has proven platform with almost million userbase (e.g. Steemit, Dtube) and record transactions with its side while EOS/NEO has to prove they can deliver the product. With SMT, STEEM could (should) have advantages over other fabric chain with lofty promises but no proofs yet (e.g. userbase or DApps). STEEM also has advantage of solving the issue of distribution being the early mover and on-live for two years where is no silver bullet for fair distribution (e.g. PoW, PoS etc.) other than dilution with time.
Fabric is releasing a SMT?
wow.... i love your comment.... carry one man,,,,, can you like me ?
The Hivemind GitHub is pretty active, with commits on a nearly daily basis. The project is much more than just Communities - a comprehensive social platform (interpretive) layer on top of the Steem blockchain. From what I can tell, there's just one developer assigned to it, at least externally, which is why it's taking so long. (I wouldn't be surprised if there are other developers testing it internally.) They are doing a great job, though, but I do hope to see more developers actively work on it. As others have pointed out, it was mentioned in last week's update too.
But yes, I appreciate the general sentiment. Hivemind is all I care about. It is abundantly clear that the number one complaint for lot of newbies is "discoverability" (well, apart from being butthurt about their earnings, and the bandwidth errors), and many would be excited to know more about Communities. A dedicated post about it is very necessary, outlining the final specification, as well as answering the big questions like "Who owns the community namespaces?"
Indeed, been wondering the "Who owns the community namespaces?" question last week after the winter update. For example who will own the big ones like travel, nature, sports, .... ? Is it first come, first served? Will there be voting, ....?
And what with the smaller niches. I follow the diving tag daily and wonder who will be given the possibility to make a diving community and appoint the moderators and what will happen when the owner of a community drops dead or leaves the steem platform?
I believe that these are separate departments, although I guess that they will make updates on every major development more often. It seems that Steemit Inc. marketing team is doing a great job keeping the community updated; it is much better than the last year!
Exactly my thoughts, this should have priority in my opinion too. 80% of the user accounts don't even think about engaging with the blockchain at all, yet allone launching their own SMT's. On the other side, one big company like nike would be enough to drive user engagement up through the roof with their SMT's. I have no clue what will happen in the future but I'm excited for both technologies, keep up the good work @steemdev
carry one man,,,,, can you like me ?
@crytoctopus I agree we need more faith in the community so @ned that could be an improvement idea not trying to bash either one of you just constructive criticism. [Please don't take it the wrong way @ned thanks @crytoctopus I agree with your points and thanks @ned.
thumbs up @ned for making smt's better and overall helping us grow we will soon be one of the biggest social medias in the web.
Hi SMT Team,
sounds really interesting and we at @steempunknet are really looking forward for the go live of the SMTs.
We will definetly include this into the game mechanics, in order for SMTs to be found ingame, be rewarded with, being able to pay ingame or out of the game and so on and so forth.
This will give the first MMORPG on the Steem Blockchain a huge amount of new possibilities, that we will use to trigger off finally the thought of proof of game which will be a real blast!
So we and all our current and future players are really looking forward to this ALOT!
Thanks alot and keep up the hard work!
Jan for the STEEMPUNK-NET Team
With so many game platforms relying on in-app purchases to turn a profit, SMTs are a no-brainer!
Sounds like an awesome project! I've always thought that Steem would be a great fit for MMORPGs, glad to see that SMTs were the catalyst. Looking forward to the game!
Well, if you are looking forward to the game, and don't want to miss out on any of the super-cool features they're working hard on developing (all the time, but right now it is the addition of housing), have I got a wonderful offer for you (or anyone!) ... ;)
Source
enter the
You might like to invite your friends to the game, so you can battle each other.
Hi @andrarchy, the game is already running and we have managed to already have over 300 players in our open beta so far.
Currently we are using the beneficiary system to reward our most active players for playing the game. But having SMTs out will up our game by a tremendous truckload of possibilities :)
Thanks!
Jan
Sounds awesome, I'd love to hear more details about your project. Would you mind e-mailing me at [email protected]?
happy to write to you now!
Can you please send us the link
I would also like to be part of the game
They have a discord server. @ravenruis have given the link of it above.
Yes, also interested to check on the game.
Extremely glad to read this comment by one of the Steemit staff even i am not linked at all to the great idea - appreciate an improved comms on Stinc site - thanks @andrarchy
Who you callin' Stinc? ;)
Was that inappropriate :-)? Isn't it the official appreciation for Steemit Inc? I am German you know..... lol
I talked about how we could build a VR MMORPG type world on the STEEM blockchain over a year ago in this post The Future Steemit Digital World..
However Decentraland has came out with an idea very similar to my post a few months ago on their own blockchain.
That is true we are truly looking forward to SMT going live and helping people on steemit getting more value. Thanks a lot for the update and we are excited about these tokens, steem power ahead!!!
I made a post about RP games and the uses of crypto in it recently, glad to know there;s people eager to also bring this to light, will definitely keep and eye on your progress with this.
From personal observation, DLive is literally becoming a game changer for Steem.
Gamers are going to be the centerpiece of the platform if the DLive numbers continue to grow.
While there will always be room for blog/vloggers, gaming is clearly a revenue generator. Needless, to say, this will be of benefit for the entire Steem community.
Btw, I'm in line with those who consider the updates from Team Steemit a positive.
Best regards.
Peace.
I agree, though you could say that for a whole number of Steem dapps. Check out the growth of a site like d.tube on similarweb.com. It's amazing to see how quickly many of these apps are growing.
Absolutely! It truly is amazing to see how the potential for growing STEEM seems to be evolving so swiftly.
Peace.
This idea sounds amazing. As a gamer, I would definitely give this a go. Super excited, and looking forward to you going live with SMTs!
Mentioning MMORPG makes it sound so interesting. Looking forward to it.
muy buena tu expresión
Oh wow! This is awesome... I have been thinking about future MMORPGs where the medium of exchange which have usually been an in-game currency is replaced by crypto-currencies... That day, our in-game avatars would truly be rewarded in real-world money for their work in the game... I hope Steempunk becomes one of the first to be able to create something like this.
I didn't know about this "gem". I checked the white paper and it looks really interesting! Keep up the good work. ;)
Looking forward to seing which companies jump on board!
I'd love to see ICOs take place on Steem instead of Ethereum for starters.
God Bless You.
Anticipating the launch of SMT
It's promising and innovative too.
Watched a video where @ned gave hints on how Entrepreneurs and would be business owners stand a chance of benefitting immensely from it.
With so many millions worth of money just disappearing, moving away from Eth for ICOs is a welcomed change for all parties.
Yeah, I think ICO's is most easy on steemit than with eth.
Will it incrase the price of steem ,Steem coin is crashing day by day
I would really like to see even a vague idea of timing on this. I actually have interest from some investors to build some things using SMTs but it makes no sense to move forward with it having literally no idea when it might be done.
Are we looking at Q2 2018, Q4 2018, later than that? I'm not asking for a date and as a software development manager I understand how difficult it can be to accurately estimate things like this, but a 3-month range I think should be doable.
Whatever quarter you think it will be done, tell us the one after that to give yourselves added buffer.
It would really, really help all the potential businesses who are considering using an SMT to have some general idea of when they can be expected.
Agreed and at the same time I understand putting a timeline on can be a lot of pressure as well.
Tell me about it!
Lots of people are watching for it. If people are excited, I believe the admin are much more excited. This should not be taken with haste because this is the future and should taken with great control when it comes to scalability.
Liked the idea - "Whatever quarter you think it will be done, tell us the one after that to give yourselves added buffer."
This is something I have learnt in my relatively small software development career that no matter what we should keep a buffer at our end because
A true software developer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street.
This is great news. As major companies like YouTube and Twitter are clamping down on user's rights to free speech and free expression, Steem is coming along at the perfect time to offer a viable alternative.
Keep it coming!
yo yo organizing a conference to get third parties into the 2020 presidential debates Mar 11 in Columbus Ohio. In order to force the media to cover the initiative hope to decrease the ballot access costs so proposals such as actually legalizing weed in Ohio so any adult can grow and deal any amount with $0 licensing fees can reach the ballot for the electorate to decide. Have some great speakers lined up. Would love to get an SMT going ASAP or else will have to fork something, would love to be an SMT test case if that is possible. Steem is amazing!!Would love to talk to anyone who can help "TheFatKat" on Discord
much better progress than eos
but eos is 9buck when steem is around 4
I agree with you, but thats because Ether is above $800
When exactly is this thing releasing? Do you have an ETA?
Love you guys!
a testned :))