BuildTeam Universe Report - Are You Ready for SMTs?

If you are anything like the twenty-three percent of surveyed Steemians, you are extremely interested in Smart Media Tokens (SMTs) and I am too! As a technical writer with a specialty in cryptocurrency research there are few projects I've found more interesting to research then the current development mission to add SMT functionality to the Steem blockchain.

As a writer for BuildTeam Universe, I know first hand about the work going on behind the scenes to bring you new projects, revamp old projects, and expand into new areas within the greater cryptosphere. We all must prepare for the upcoming tokenized revolution, if it is broadcasted, you'll find it all on the blockchain! In one of my first steps to prepare for the launch of SMTs, I reached out to a variety of different communities, developers, and witnesses to gauge general interest for SMTs.

My focus on this survey was to keep it quick, simple, and to the point. I aimed to diversify respondents from minnows to dolphins to whales. I surveyed a sample size of thirty respondents of which an overwhelming eighty-percent identified as being a part of a community. This highlights the number of micro-communities inside the overall Steemit community. The strength behind these communities is inspiring, even if many never see the light of the Trending Page. This is why I aim to highlight some of these smaller known communities and projects in a series I will call Non-Trending Community and Non-Trending Project.

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Projects on SMT

Of the 20% of respondents that were developers, 40% said they were extremely likely to create an SMT, 20% said they were likely to create an SMT, while the other 40% said they were unlikely to create an SMT. 100% of developers that responded said they are either very likely or likely to use an SMT. Though the excitement by developers is strong, it isn't blind. Two-thirds of the developers that responded believe mainstream adoption of SMTs could take ten or more years; the biggest concern for SMTs is scalability.

Witness Constructive Concerns

Some of the biggest concerns come from the write-in other option where witnesses wrote in to answer the question What is your biggest concern for SMTs?

The answers seemed to focus around regulatory compliance and the additional confusion that may ensue when users are left to deal with a multitude of new and misunderstood tokens. In a nutshell, I found that simplicity was stated as the biggest obstacle for SMTs.

Growth is Expected

With SteemIt already surpassing one million user signups, the average expected duration before the mainstream adoption was twelve years with the biggest obstacles including "Education and Understanding the economics of blockchain technology" and regulations with ~42% of respondents split between Simplicity and Maturity in the Crypto Space. Though as communities start to grow, the interest in SMTs pushes high expectations as ~42% also show interests in investing in SMTs.

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SMTs are Not Just for Devs

SMTs strike a particular interest in witnesses as 87.5% of responded witnesses are either likely or very likely to use an SMT. Half of the witnesses that responded also showed interest in creating an SMT. Witnesses see the growth of the platform as coming much sooner with an average of 5.5 years before STEEM finds mainstream adoption. This maps an exponential increase in users by Q1 2024. The biggest obstacle our witness respondents reported is Marketing.

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Investors Want Their Own SMTs

Filtering out respondents that answered likely or very likely shows the particular interest investors have in not just partaking in SMTs but also creating SMTs. As more than 91% of investors want to use SMTs, half of the investor respondents want to also create an SMT. Though respondents that interest investing in SMTs overwhelmingly believe Adoption is the biggest concern for SMTs. One particular write in answer stood out as a concern for SMTs.

As a community member, I don't know how they work yet so I'd say like making the whole concept mass adoptable which is slightly different than just whether or not people will choose to adopt. If the learning curve is too big it will only be something the more experienced and people with the most time on their hands to learn about it will use.

Will We See Too Many SMTs?

Even though many respondents are excited about SMTs and show interest in using SMTs, interest in investing in SMTs is split. Though ~42% of respondents are either likely or very likely to invest, the same number of respondents also selected neither likely nor unlikely. Some of the concerns that explain this lack of interest to invest include an excess of SMTs and regulatory compliance.

Conclusion

Though many respondents recognize SMTs infancy, many are excited to see it develop. Developers and investors are excited to create SMTs for their projects while communities and witnesses want to see SMTs comply with regulations and gain marketing before diving deep into them. Witnesses have higher expectations for SMTs as they expect mainstream adoption to come significantly sooner than other respondents. The ultimate driving force behind this adoption, however, would rest in the adoption by communities already on Steemit.

The future still looks bright for Steem in general and the BuildTeam Universe platform which will continue to bring you high quality articles on issues that are relevant to the community. If you enjoyed this survey and wish to participate in future surveys, feel free to suggest questions in the comments below.

Authored by: @jpederson96

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