What Is It About SMTs That We Just Can't Seem To Have Them?

in OCD5 years ago

It occurred to be the other day that maybe SMTs just aren't meant to be.

I'm not superstitious, but if I were:

I mean, for something that quite a few folks here have been waiting for since their initial announcement way back when, something that has been billed as the next biggest thing to the STEEM blockchain itself, and something that is supposed to revolutionize the way we think of STEEM and interact with it—for all of that, something else has gotten in the way of their implementation.

I'm not a blockchain engineer, so I don't know all the ins and outs of what goes into SMT development, nor does it matter. In my mind, the work hasn't been so much the issue. If it were just that, and the time required to test SMTs, they'd have been implemented long ago.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, which I'm not, I would wonder who doesn't want them to ever see the light of day. There have been plenty of hard forks since their announcement, yet, SMTs weren't the sole purpose for or the main purpose for any of them. Something else took top priority.

Why?

Someone else will have to answer that. I'm not privy to all the ends and outs prior to 2018, at least not personally. Since that time, though, I can take a crack at it, from an ordinary STEEM user point of view.

It seems to me, some of the reasons for not having SMTs much sooner are understandable, at least for a period of time. From November of 2018 through quite a bit of last year, after the Steemit layoffs and before the company was said to be coming out of it, survival was the main priority. SMTs were put on the back burner in order to work on cost saving measures and protocols. All good stuff, and in the end, things that will benefit the blockchain enormously, if ever given the chance.

But what happened before that, during the good times, when STEEM prices were well above $1 USD and before the bear market was even recognized as a thing?

It seems to me that in the giddy days of $1, $2, $4 STEEM, anything seemed possible. Which included working on an array of different projects, all at once. At the very least, there wasn't a sense of urgency.

Maybe I'm wrong, and there's probably more, much more to it, but in the simplest of terms, that's what it feels like.

The hard fork before the layoffs, HF20, was dubbed Velocity and billed as the means by which onboarding users would accelerate. The masses could finally be supported. However, HF20 became about RCs, or rather, the lack thereof, until additional measures were taken to enable more of us, but not all, to function as before.

Fast forward to after Steemit Inc. is said to be coming out of survival mode. SMTs along with Communities are back on track, steemitblog is publishing regularly with updates, including what's happening with SMTs, but then the SPS takes priority, and with it, the EIP gets added and again, SMTs miss another hardfork.

Finally, though, after HF22 is needed to iron out an unintended issue with delegating, it's announced that the SMT code is ready for a testnet and a tentative time for their introduction to the mainnet is given—sometime in the spring of 2020, like April-ish.

Things go along, some updates are given through steemitblog, others through those who are participating in the testing phase, and as 2020 starts to unfold, there seems to be a real sense that, hey, SMTs could finally be a thing, rather than an ever promised, but ever undelivered deliverable.

I actually thought, This is finally going to happen.

Then, boom. STEEM is upended by a series of unfortunate events for the entirety of the blockchain, not just SMTs. Now, the fate of STEEM, not just SMTs, hang in the balance, and where any of it, or us, might end up, is anyone's guess.

I write that knowing I usually roll my eyes when something like that is said about anything. Things aren't usually that dire, even if they seem like they are at the time. And maybe that will be the case with STEEM.

I'm kind of hoping someone decides to take a step back from the brink. I'm not sure who it's going to be. At least, there's communication going on, even if it seems to be taking somewhat of a tangent. The recent talks have been centered more around the Korean Community and the things they want to see removed and/or added, which don't seem to be at the heart of where TRON/Justin Sun and the STEEM human witnesses, or the rest of the community for that matter, are at.

Meanwhile, Communities are live.

SMTs? Not so much.

And to add insult to injury, the next hard fork, as far as it looks right now, will either be to create a new version of STEEM, or to implement some sort of reduction in the power down protocol. And after that, probably, whichever didn't get into HF23. Then the next one will probably have something to do with witness voting or DPOS as a whole.

I don't know. It's like, are SMTs that bad of a deal that even the fate of the STEEM blockchain has to be put in jeopardy and its very foundation has to be dug up and repoured to prevent them from happening?

Some of you are bound to be thinking, SMTs have nothing do with the current state of affairs. The sale of Steemit Inc. with the uncertainty of the Steemit stake, the non-communication between Sun and the Witnesses, the soft fork, the imposing of non human witnesses by TRON/Sun and some crypto exchanges in reaction to said soft fork, and now the governance stalemate is what got us here.

As I said before, I'm not superstitious, nor am I a conspiracy theorist. It's more like, You've got to be kidding me!

Unfortunately, though, not much kidding is happening on STEEM nowadays, either.

Gifs from giphy.com

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I've been asking about SMT's, bringing them up in comments, and it is like they are completely off the radar. The last, (what I consider last), steemitblog post stated that SMT's were very near to completion testing wise, and that it was going to be a standalone Hard Fork no loser power down period as people were trying to push at the time. Then BOOM steemit.inc is sold, everything goes on hold, and now we are back to talking about lower power down period. I personally would like to see the witness say no to any lowering of the power down cycle. Hold Steemit.inc to the SMT hard Fork, then discuss the so called power down issue. SMT's were in testing since December, it was prepped, it was ready, it got steemrolled.

How's this for conspiracy:
SMT's worked like a champ during the testing, only minor issue and they were resolved. They were going to be able to become the next tool for on-line gaming. No need to have the trx token and to be tied to a megalomaniac. The only casino's could build their own Steem Backed Token. On-line games could have their own real currency. No exchanges to worry about because the owners or winners of the casino/game coins could exchange them on the steem wallet function for steem and then buy what ever token they needed for the next game, just like converting steem from to SBD. No controlling middle man for the game/casino token. No Tron system to go through, no exchange charging staggering conversion fees, what you Win you win, no cut back to the casino, no cut to polinex, no cut to Tron, no cut to any middle man at all, it is yours all yours.

So Justin just had to stop that from happening. He needs s platform that is fast and allows bots, so of course the down votes have to go, they would be bad for his business, his bots would not be able to run, so kill all the free birds with one stone, buy and take over steem.

I like FUD, all thoughts are just that thoughts. maybe not good, right or correct thinking, but they are thoughts to try and build a FUDDY Duddy Conspiracy. Is there any truth to the matter, I doubt it, but I do love to speculate.

Hey, @bashadow.

Is what you described really conspiracy theory if it's actually true? I mean, as far as I can tell, you don't have any major leaps of logic in any of that, or reaching to connect an innumerable amount of dots. :) Sun publicly says things that sound like he wants to destroy STEEM, and his actions seem to back those statements up. It's what he tells us that confuses matters just enough to keep things rolling along.

Now, conspiracy theory would be that Ned timed the sale of Steemit to specifically thwart the release of SMTs, or that someone else, behind the scenes from the beginning, some whale perhaps or even a longstanding consensus witness or two has been against SMTs and doing all kinds of things to postpone or derail them, including a certain soft fork.

I agree about where SMTs are. They do get mentioned in one of the last steemitblogs, but whether they're still on track or not, most signs point to no.

Also a good theory!

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Pretty much how I've been feeling about recent events, and I'm sure we're not the only ones.

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