Now that RC delegation is getting worked out I am trying to work out what that actually means for later on when SMTs arrive. What I think it means is that there can be pools of resource credits created that will be able to be used for account creation as well as user bandwidth for usage which means other than the Steem bought for SMT creation, Steem won't be needed by the SMTs. But, there was mention a long time ago of upvoting being possible using SMTs and Steem at the same time which is a bit exciting.
I am not sure about this at all but does that mean that a new user can enter onto an SMT platform to earn the SMT as the platform allows but a Steem Holder can use the platform and distribute both Steem and the SMT? That could make Steem holders some kind of power user that can distribute across multiple Steem platforms and earn SMTs plus Steem through curation as well as put more distribution of Steem much wider across the ecosystem.
I took advantage of @Steemhunt's airdrop a few months ago and since then have been curating on their platform pretty much every day a little. Over time, this has earned me the curation in Steem plus, hunt tokens for supporting their user base and now I am a HUNT Orca which might have no value at all once the SMTs are released but, I find it interesting.
And, this is why I found it interesting as I have used it as a consumer of the platform, not a contributor. I wanted to see what it would be like to use a platform where I am not interested in the users at all but I pick it solely on content provided. Yes, I have a few friends who post through @steemhunt I support too but for the most part I look for some product I find interesting and give it a little bump. This means that I have no idea who the actual posters generally are that I am distributing Steem and HUNT to, and I am only deciding on what is presented. In return, I also get a some distribution of HUNT token that will later be converted to an SMT as well as the normal curation.
Life as a consumer on SMTs
I wanted to trial this and see what life is like for a consumer who has Steem Power to earn SMTs with and if this is how it will work later, then I may still be able to earn Steem curation while also earning SMT curation. If the SMT ends up being worth something, it means that there is more value in Steem curation return alone which means there is more value in keeping SP active and using it to vote manually.
SMTs are able to set up their own rules on how their platform operates of course, which means that it could be possible to limit vote selling/buying through their platform rule bases which means that potentially, the benefits of having the SMT on top could be only available to those who play by the rules. How they might do this in practice I am not technical enough to guess at but, it should be approachable at least. I think that this gives SMT platforms a lot of power to affect behaviors of their user base and can encourage a much healthier distribution culture from the get go.
Still distributing
Now, let's say that @Steemhunt fails and their token is worthless. I have still been able to benefit from using Steem to curate and I have still been able to distribute Steem to users. If those same users have been able to power some up, they can move over to another Steem-based platform and start again without having to start from zero. As for me, I will be able to do more of the same somewhere else and aid decentralization of the network.
Perhaps in time I will get tired of posting as often and instead choose to solely curate but more likely, I will have my 'home' platform where I post and enjoy while I travel around the wider Steem ecosystem and curate content I like as a consumer. All the time I am distributing potentially both Steem and whatever SMT the platform I am on happens to have as well as earning some percentage back. By doing this, I am supporting the startup SMTs and their user base simultaneously without them having to have a large initial outlay.
Options and variables
Between all of this there are going to be a whole range of other services that popup to support the Steem ecosystem along the way as well as markets where people will be able to trade on SMT for another SMT. This also means that the platforms are going to have to individually do a better job of servicing their clientele as there is a growing list of attention grabbing platforms and limited curation SP to go around. Of course, they are distributing their SMT also but for them to have value, they need their user base to value it.
The idea that SMTs are going to send Steem to the moon is not necessarily true but, it could be if a few of them are able to make a significant impact on the attention economies and, they don't have to be Steem born. The thing with SMTs is that it is a tokenized layer that can be implemented relatively easily across any content platform to reward a user base. If an established large platform wants to trial tokenization, SMTs are a suitable model for them to use. None of this guarantees Steem through the stratosphere though.
I think that Steem's strength in the future is going to be its versatility at every layer of the ecosystem no matter where one enters from. For those who are interested in the investing side of the platform there are going to be many, many ways to create revenue Streams, those who are looking to earn via sweat equity are going to have a myriad choices and consumers can happily enjoy any of it.
I have started claiming discounted account creation credits because even though I am unsure how I will use them later on, I think that it is good if those who can, hold some if they can. The current cost is 9.36MM RC mana for one account which is ~4500 Steem but this seems to fluctuate up and down (I don't know why). I can claim ~2 a day. What I figure is that at some point, a community might need accounts created for various reasons and this could be used to support them. For now, I am going to store them only until I have more information available on how best to use them.
Steem a hold coin?
I am so far pretty happy with the possibilities of RCs but obviously foggy on how they are going to combine with SMTs and the Dapps. I am pretty sure that the RCs give the possibility of bandwidth to them without large Steem outlays but will encourage Steem distribution through curation much wider than it is now and, for more effective returns. This is necessary because as said previously, RCs are only available through powered up (active) Steem which means distribution and powering up of Steem still needs to be encouraged. This means RCs will have a large role to play in the distribution process and those who take part in offering RCs into the pools will in time see value flow back that has made the holding worthwhile.
What the overarching goal for Steem as a content distribution blockchain is is decentralization and a replacing of what is currently centralized with what is not. Its core feature too do this is the ability to put value on the content and distribute it through various ways across the network rather than funneling it to a corporation at the top. The more it distributes, the more that onboard, the more that become providers and consumers, the more value the chain holds and the more valuable all users are.
What could be the case is that Steem becomes a hold coin of sorts that is used as a distributor of SMTs instead of as the main trading currency.Its utility in its distributive power of other coins and RC creation. This would be true if a great deal of RCs are needed in particular and would drive the price of Steem and RCs high while more and more are earning SMTs on the layer above. This would also give a decent use case for keeping SBDs in the mix as the stable trading coin but these things are far outside my scope of understanding.
A little bit of love
The reason I write these posts is that I am trying to work out pictures of how things might come together based on the very limited information I hold as it helps me develop a view which I can then change as new information comes to light. Often enough, I have misunderstood some area of it which I would not know I misunderstood until I have put it out there and gotten some feedback.
There is a lot of complexity at this level and a lot of uncertainty but what is going to be interesting in the future is that new users need not see any of it as they will be introduced to clean, polished sites where they will just come on and start using and earning an SMT by hopefully doing something they love.
Wouldn't it be an awesome world if at least some part of our earning could always come through doing something we love in communities that love what we do?
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
Take everything in life with a grain of salt.