What Do Steem Inc. Layoffs & The Crypto Crash Mean for Smart Media Tokens?
If you're reading this, then there's a high chance that you are well aware of the recent crypto crash. Projections had the almighty Bitcoin dipping as low as 5,000 in the months leading up to the crash, but things got as bad as the 3,000 dollar mark.
In a way, this is a good thing. We all knew (or felt) that some sort of crash was coming, we just couldn't really tell when it would be or how bad. Now it seems to be behind us, with the crypto market rapidly recovering and on track to make fair gains by Christmas (I'm assuming it won't go lower than 3,000 and that the current uptrend will more or less continue. Knock on wood).
But where does this leave Steem and, maybe more importantly, Steemit Inc? Today in a shattering post @ned just announced that he has been forced to fire 70% of his current staff due to the current crypto market. My first and instant thought was: how does this effect SMT's? Down in the comments no one had seemed to think of it yet (or I maybe didn't scroll down far enough, there were a lot of comments.
I guess the main question was, what staff was laid off?
He hinted that the trajectories of some of his plans had been readjusted, but didn't say which or how. SMT's are basically Steem's main hope for the future. It's true that there are other dapps, but Steem as a currency won't land on people's radar in the relatively near term unless SMT's are deployed. This is dangerous, because you can be sure that many other Steem copycats are in the works (if the DLive and Lino debacle taught us nothing else it taught us that) and Steem needs to take full advantage of its nearly 3 year lead.
I'm not sure if we should worry too much, however. I mean, I'm betting Ned is smart enough to realize all of this, and has focused the bulk of his efforts on keeping more or less on track for SMT's.
But I'll believe it when I see the next SMT update. Here's hoping.
To me it seems like a time of refocused energy and opportunity. Yes, hopefully we’ve seen the bottom of the crypto lows, but who knows. I’m in it for the long haul. Wonder where we’ll be in a year.
I hear ya. But for those of us who have been here for years, it's been a long wait. The crypto crash and Steem losing 70% of it's employees is not great for the long awaited SMT's. I'm not giving up, but things look more bleak than they basically ever have for Steem, even when the price was lower. Your exact statement is pretty much where I was about two years ago when I was still relatively new, too. Still in it for the long haul, but definitely feeling the 'long' part!
Thanks for commenting!