Steem Engine on the Steem sidechain to create your own tokens in a flash

Hey I just found Steem Engine. Did you know about it? What a hidden treasure trove for all Steemit users. It’s a “side-chain” platform that facilitates smart contracts for the Steem blockchain. And what I discovered is a place full of unknown tokens as well as the opportunity for me to create my own token. How cool is that!

The software to run Steem smart contracts on Steem Engine was created by @harpagon. It scans newly added blocks for transfers, custom_json, comment operations, etc and executes the smart contract function specified.

I took a look at the list of tokens created on the Steemit blockchain so far and saw 35 with a market cap and 57 more listed with no actual use yet by the looks of it. The most important of them is, of course, the Engine token (ENG) itself, the native token of the platform. It’s required to create your own new token and for future custom smart contract creation. The value is currently the same as that of Steem 1:1 although in the market section of the platform, I noticed the bid was at 0.91 STEEM and the ask is 0.95 STEEM, so I guess the price hovers in the general region of 1:1, like a stable coin with a touch of market-driven volatility. In the actual market a total of 30 tokens were listed open to trade, out of the 35 I saw initially.

In future ENG tokens, of which there are 4 million max supply, can be earned by running the Steem smart contracts node software to create blocks and thereby help to secure the network. At that point the price will invariably break free from the Steem tether and be solely determined by the internal market.

To create your own token you need to buy 100 ENG, and use that to launch your own personalized sovereign currency creation. The fee is only a token gesture (pun intended) to prevent people from creating spam tokens that they don’t intend to use, just for fun. It’s a small barrier of entry so wouldn’t bother a genuine user, but will at least deter jokers. And besides that, Steem Engine is even willing to negotiate with serious users who may not be able to pay the initial 100 STEEM required. Just chat to them and negotiate, and you may even be able to get your token built for free, with sponsorship. Just prove your case and show that you are legitimate in your request and you’re good to go. Nothing like minting your own money to make you feel like the king of your world.

It’s totally up to you how many tokens you want to issue at the launch. For example:

• STEEMSC (Steem stable token) for $0.48 at 100k so far, out of 1 billion max supply
• SMPT (Steem monsters poker token) for $0.32 at 10k max supply
• SWEET (Swapsteem Engineering & Enhancement Team) for $0.46 at 21 million max
• NINJA (Steem ninja) $0.93 at 10k so far out of 1 trillion max

These are all functional tokens used within Steemit Dapps for specific purposes. Similarly you can create your own token for your personalised Dapp such as the following:

• NEO (Neoxian Gold, not the original) worth $4.61, 106 circulating out of 21 million; $488 market cap
• FREEX (Freex) worth $0.46; 20 mill circulating out of 100 mill, though only $1.32 daily vol.
• SER (Serum) worth $0.14, 1k circulating out of 1mil

The last one Serum, is described as a gift token to give to friends, or reward, share or donate as you like. So you can also design and launch your very own token, with whatever use case you wish on the Steemit blockchain, whether trivial or sincere, hobbiest or professional. And you don’t have to go through the difficulties of the ERC20 process on the Ethereum platform. Here it’s quick and easy, fun and cheap. Many of the tokens are not used much on a daily basis yet, with only the top 11 having a 24hr volume above $1, but the idea or concept is great. It’s the kind of thing gamers love for their in- house purchases of merchandise.

I already have some tokens in my Steem Engine wallet. I received a free gift of 100HBO tokens from @hobo.media for following his blog. They are worth $0.00046 and not of any major significance yet, but that’s beside the point. Hobo was able to create a token and use them to benefit his blog and engage in trade with them. Similarly you can do the same via Steem Engine, depending on your imagination and entrepreneurial skills. This is what the blockchain is all about, opening up the economy to a whole new dimension of trading and business for the millennial generation.

There is even a “send” button on the site allowing us to transfer a token to another Steem account with ease. The Steem Engine market is also a great decentralized exchange allowing us to buy or sell any token created in exchange for Steem, much like any other DEX. Another token called STEEMP which is pegged to Steem at 1:1 is actually used, since the platform is not part of the core Steem blockchain code itself. And we can buy and sell this tethered token at any time for Steem, verifiable in the @steem-peg account. There is a 1% fee on all deposits and withdrawals of Steem, although there is no trading fee. Just transfer some Steem, buy STEEMP and use that to trade in other tokens.

Overall the platform is very user-friendly. If you want to integrate your website or project with the Steem Engine platform, just use their javaScript library, or interact with the RPC endpoints directly from any programming language or tool of your choice. Devs on Discord are also there to assist you at any time. In future you will be able to publish your own smart contracts. This feature is still in the pipelines. Just contact the devs again for that. This is a great extension of the Steemit collective and I’m sure the community who love Steemit like I do will like this sidechain very much. Check them out at www.steem-engine.com.

Pic: By W. Bulach - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56580147