Thanks for the comment. I have all but given up on posting too. This post and the one preceding it are probably the last ones I'll do for awhile, though I may still comment on occasion. I hardly ever used voting bots before these but it is a night and day difference when one uses them - in fact, for new users without any followings it is the only way to actually capture some value out of this platform.

Twisted, isn't it? It's not about the quality of what you contribute, but rather how many SBDs you preload your account with and your ability to outbid others for bot votes. And yet somehow Ned thinks that such a broken system is worth billions. The market isn't oblivious to the comatose development pace of this site over the past two years and has valued steem accordingly. Shame, really.

Will SMTs uplift the image of the steem blockchain in the broader crypto community? Time will tell. I see it as more of a deflection of accountability - that, or they are admitting that steemit is a hopeless experiment and are trying to repackage steem as having far more utility beyond serving as a foundational basis for a inherently flawed blogging platform that has devolved into multi level marketing and travel photo posts senselessly reaping $100s of SBD and steem.