Of course, soon is a relative term depending upon your time frame. In geological terms, soon is 100,000 years. This makes sense since many feel this is the pace that Steemit Inc operates upon.
However, we did receive some positive news yesterday. Posted on @steemitblog was an interview with the lead developer of the SMTs. @andrarchy did an interview with Steve Gerbino which I found to be very enlightening.
Knowing how the community feels along with the importance of this project, the questioning was done in such a way to provide reasonable expectations regarding SMTs.
It also uncovered a major problem within the workings of Steemit Inc. The only question is whether it was avoidable or not. Actually, in the end, it really does not matter.
Anyway, Steve basically said he will have a great deal of it done over the next week if he is able to focus upon it. This is something that, according to him, is a constant at Steemit Inc. The tendency is to start moving in a direction and then pull everyone off it for something else. At times, this is necessary but does produce poor results.
The real problem is that is context-swapping is expensive. Moving from one project to another makes it difficult to stay on track.
Anyone who has run a business or project knows how true this is. Jumping around from fire-to-fire tends to create a chaotic work state where productivity is reduced. This explains a great deal as to why what was produced by the team over the last couple years was less than expected.
As for the SMTs themselves, there is no reason for them not to be completed in a timely manner from this point. The only issue, according to Steve, is being given the time to do it. From a technical standpoint, he does not foresee any major barriers.
The main thing that has been standing in the way of releasing SMTs isn’t some impossible-to-solve technical problem. All we needed was a block of time where we could be focused on SMTs and not be pulled in a million directions.
He went on to say:
All we need to finish SMTs is the time to focus, and then it will get done. Aside from some minimal Testnet support, that’s largely where we are at right now. Thanks to the work being done on Tesnet, numerous bugs have been found and patched. That means that we can be reasonably certain that the roll out of HF21 will be very smooth, and after that, it’s going to be clear sailing for SMTs.
Here is a summary of the interview.
https://steempeak.com/steemit/@gerbino/my-background-and-vision-for-steem
Steemit Inc really needs to finish the SMTs for many reasons. One of the biggest relates to credibility. The company's name is associated with grand promises with little delivery. Basically, it is mush within the industry (along with much of the community). There is no trust in the company that it will produce anything it claims. SMTs were on the table for more than a year and a half and we still have nothing.
What makes it worse is the community developers took what was in the works and completed it within a short period of time. The Steem-Engine tokens are based upon the code that was written for SMTs. I understand that coding for the base versus layer two solutions are different, yet we do see the ability to get things done when the community pursues it.
Thus far, Steemit Inc has not kept pace.
Many talked about #newsteem on here and it is time for Steemit Inc to get on board. There are many issues that need attention going forward along with a lot of repair to the reputation of Steem. Since Steemit Inc is largely responsible for it, they have to step up to the plate to move things along. Whether we like it or not, in the minds of most of the crypto world, Steemit and Steem are one.
From the interview, it sounds like there is very little required from the development left regarding the next Hard Fork. This means those who are responsible for SMTs should be exclusively focused upon it very soon. My hope is we see that starting in August.
How long it takes from there, I have no idea. If we could see the coding ready to go by the fall, that would be a major win. We are rapidly moving through 2019 so it is time to get some of this stuff out.
According to Steve, time to get it done is the only thing needed. I hope Steemit Inc avoids other fires and gives it to him.
Dare I say, the wait is almost over?
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