Synopsis of Steemit Community Members’ Views on Issues to Address in Roll-Out of SMTs

What are the the main SMT-related questions or challenges that leaders of the “SMT Project” should address as the near future unfolds? Are you interested in seeing synopses of Steemit community members’ views about those questions or challenges? If so, please see one synopsis below. No doubt, others will be published in due course.

You will see how I compiled this synopsis after I present its contents. Also at the end I list all the URLs for the pages from which I extracted ideas shown in the text that follows.

The synopsis is organized on the four broad headings: technical issues, marketing issues, system maintenance issues, and other widely commented issues that I decided to downgrade for this presentation. Please note that some of the points stated below have aspects that involve more than one of the broad headings. Also, it is understood that the SMT project leaders will want to re-group items under headings of their choice.

Technical issues:

1. How would the automated market-maker system work, and will SMT developers’ access to it be suitably simplified?
2. Assuming that the required software engineering and witness support goals and milestones have been mapped, is progress towards achieving them being systematically tracked?
3. What tests are being put in place (for use prior to the rollout of SMTs) to ensure that the leaders of entities that wish to implement SMTs will not be required to be, or to employ, block chain geeks?
4. Will the mechanics of setting up a new SMT be made easy enough for people without strong backgrounds in the related technologies? The White Paper does show a related form that people are supposed to fill out; but is that all there is (as mechanics) to setting up an SMT?

Marketing issues:

1. Are you developing a public communications program, with appropriate communications-specialist support, to ensure that all major aspects of SMT implementation can be well understood by people who do not have specialist technical knowledge and who are unfamiliar with the specialists’ jargon?
2. In your public communications, will you ensure that all new concepts and related terminology developed in connection with the SMT project are well defined for clear understanding by well-read lay persons?
3. Are you imagining various scenarios whereby the growth of particular SMTs might exert negative influences on the future expansion of Steemit, and what steps are you planning to put in place to manage such situations?
4. What steps are you putting in place to manage the situation in which multiple SMTs emerge within a short time, including a number that raise the kinds of troubling questions now publicly raised about many ICO’s? In other words, are you assembling an experienced team to manage the situation in which some bad public branding emerges from well-publicized stories about the SMT roll-out process or particular ‘sketchy’ SMT initiatives?
5. Since some kinds of SMTs might raise particular issues regarding potential SEC scrutiny, what steps are being taken to provide support, or access to support, to parties that may need help to proactively address possible SEC concerns?
6. Teams of volunteers should develop well-criticized statements about potential use cases for SMTs. That is, the use case descriptions should be made public only after they have received serious criticism from various viewpoints, their realism e.g. .
   (Note. Several of the questions just stated might seem to be missclassified under a “Marketing” heading. What I have in mind is that they have aspects that will or could impact on how well the SMT project will be ‘sold’ to the relevant institution leaders. SMTs are already getting branded, and so concern about how the branding process unfolds as we go forward seems to be in order.)

System maintenance issues:

1. What steps will be taken to ensure that the platform is not flooded with scams?
2. What steps will be taken to ensure that a party bringing an SMT to the marketplace has satisfied the various requirements needed to promote its reasonable longevity?
   Note: it might help thinking about these and related items to think they are about threat management strategies.

Other widely commented issues:
The next two issues appear at the bottom of the list for reasons I will state.

• Should the rollout of SMTs be delayed until Steemit has achieved needed improvements and much wider acceptance in the marketplace? (I feel that this ‘train has already left the station’.)
• How can SMTs gain and grow value? (I feel that this issue rests nearly 100% on the shoulders of the parties that will bring SMTs to the marketplace. However, Steem Inc. leaders will no doubt be concerned about helping SMT developers to avoid experiencing well-publicized ‘value failures’.)

End of the synopsis!

How was this synopsis developed?

Starting on the day when the SMT Project was announced, I have carefully watched for related posts under the “New” and “Trending” menus. I have allowed several days to pass before trying to make this report, and last night I checked carefully the items that appeared on the following URLs: https://steemit.com/trending/smt, and https://steemit.com/created/smt . I invested many hours in studying not only the main texts of posts but also the comments.

Here is a listing of the URLs from which I extracted materials ideas that appear in the synopsis. I took the time to check posts that appeared in other languages, in search of ideas that would be useful to have in the synopsis (with the help of the now fantastic Google Translate — the translation quality is invariably bad (I know that from my command of French); but the conveyance of the sense of ideas seems pretty good most of the time).

https://steemit.com/steem/@ned/announcing-smart-media-tokens-smts

https://steemit.com/ned/@coffeelovers/smart-media-tokens-will-it-be-a-reality-soon-2017929t23292569z

https://steemit.com/smt/@the-alien/smart-media-tokens-introducing-the-game-changer

https://steemit.com/steem/@ned/explainer-value-flows-on-steem-with-smts-video

https://sIn closingteemit.com/smt/@heymattsokol/developing-steem-to-its-fullest-potential-why-smts-are-crucial-and-steemit-com-isn-t-so-important

https://steemit.com/smt/@jenkinrocket/smart-media-tokens-are-awesome-this-is-why-folks-are-freaking-out-and-also-some-concerns

https://steemit.com/smt/@firepower/steemit-s-smart-media-tokens-will-be-the-real-game-changer

https://steemit.com/smt/@rideofpassion/how-whaleshares-community-implemented-token-system-and-why-smart-media-tokens-is-a-welcoming-step-a-beginners-guide

https://steemit.com/steem/@yabapmatt/will-the-new-smts-help-or-hurt-steem

In closing, I have assumed that the leaders of the SMT Project are actively interested in sampling the views of the members about matters that should concern them as they pursue the success of the project in months ahead. I invite them to regard me as a ‘committee of one’ that is bringing to them (in this post) a summary report of the members’ views, with the caveat that different reports on the same topic might be equally useful.

With the aim of helping the leaders of the “SMT Project”, here are three ways you can contribute to improving this package of information.
1 If I have missed ideas that you have contributed and which you think should be part of a synopsis, then please add your ideas and the related URLs in the comments.
2 If, having reviewed the synopsis, you think that you have some important new points to raise for the attention of the said leaders, please do raise these points in the comments section.
3 Also I would be most grateful if you corrected errors, misinterpretations or other misleading materials in the synopsis.

Le Statisticien, Arawak_InfoSYS and http://www.marketstatsanalytics.com .