SCOT stands for Smart Contract Organizational Token. It's a Steem-Engine.com project. We're taking the white paper for Smart Media Tokens (SMTs) and delivering on it to the best of our ability NOW. This post marks the formal beginning of live testing of the prototype we call Novel Distribution: Smart Contract Organizational Token (ND SCOT).
Who are we?
aggroed manages the project as a whole
crystalhuman and clayboyn help out with customer support and content
The project involves a number of contributing devs-
harpagon built the smart contract software and runs the node
yabapmatt built steem-engine.com as a private front end to the smart contract node. He also realized and designed the SCOT system to operate on the Steem-Engine platform
he handed the development work off to beggars who is constructing the more recent additions
someguy123 built and manages the token converter that allows other cryptos like btc, bch, ltc, and doge to the exchange for trading
Holger80 has constructed the voting bot that we’re using to launch the SCOT service
inertia has built a block explorer and helps us with engineering decisions, some programming, and customer concerns
(Special thanks to asgarth who built the dex, and wehmoen who made the first block explorer for the project)
What's the Vision - Tokenize your community!
You have a community and you'd like to monetize it. You create a token, distribute it, and users stake it. They go to yourcoolwebsite.com where you run something that looks a lot like steemit.com (condenser) or your own custom UI; however, the rewards are in COOL tokens, the users don't see every steem post out there by default, and you have more control of what's happening on the site. You've created your own custom website, from and for your own community, with your own token, and it distributes similarly to Steem. It trades on steem-engine.com against Steem but you can trade it for BTC, LTC, BCH, and DOGE nor or against ETH/EOS/BTS/Tron in the near future.
Your token is a success and you're able to sell what you bought, traded, mined, earned, or minted to the community.
It's like the vision for SMTs, but happening today through Steem-Engine.com.
Where is the project at now?
This is literally my first post that's using the tag scottest which is SCOT test. It's not live on the main production site now. We're still on the test servers. So, no, you can't start today, but we're going live with testing as of right now! Hopefully before the end of May everyone who wants one can get their own community started.
The project is moving in iterative steps from centralized to decentralized as it's progressing. Right now we're running the SCOT distribution features through essentially a python voting bot, which is a centralized service that is controlled by individual devs and project owners. As we get this nailed down and working correctly we'll also implement a way to have the same distribution handled by smart contract through Steem-Engine. We'll let both options exist, but the smart contract version reduces the amount of trust needed in the leaders for the project to be successful.
How's it work?
Steem-Engine is a layer 2 solution facilitating proof of brain distribution. Data is stored on the main chain through custom json operations that are added to the main chain by witnesses as users submit actions. Steem as a blockchain has no idea what any of the Steem-Engine transactions mean, but the blockchain can make sure that all the data provided is validated by consensus. Any standard Steem block that has transactions that are regarding Steem-engine are picked up and put into a separate chain we call a side chain.
Our side chain is literally a subset of transactions that were stored on Steem. The side chain ignores all but the Steem-Engine relevant transactions. Then the Steem-Engine node kicks in to read the data that is stored on the side chain, interpret it, and execute on it. "Transfer 17 COOL tokens from aggroed to yabapmatt." "Issue 30 Drama Tokens" and other activities are executed by the node. The node doesn't have a p2p layer beyond the witnesses yet, but before the end of the year we hope to have a fully functioning P2P consensus layer for the Steem-Engine nodes (as opposed to witness nodes) with separate block production and block production rewards. In the meantime you get pretty close to that by independently running your own node to verify transactions so that you can see we're not randomly adding extra tokens to ourselves.
And yes, the node software is opensource!
Want to run your own token and build your own community website?
We're working on making this as simple as possible. Some trickiness we can't escape, but it should look something like this and be available in May-
Getting Started
Step 1. Make a token, set some parameters, and work with us get the voting bot working and potentially (optionally) decide to create your own web portal with it
Step 2. Issue tokens to users
Step 3. Users stake tokens
Step 4. Users create posts on regular steem sites (steempeak, busy, steemit, cryptoempirebot) and just use a tag, or they go through your custom website
Step 5. Users vote on each others posts in the normal way, but now they get Steem and other tokens as well!
Why is this a big deal?
SMTs seem infinitely delayed. They're likely game changing, but it's tough to know how far into the future we'd have to wait for them to arrive. In the meantime everyone can create their own Steemit.com like site with their own tokenonimcs starting sometime in May. If you don't have a community behind you it may not make a big deal. If people with communities behind them start forming their own token based community here it'll have a drastic effect towards user acquisition, retention, and community empowerment.
People = Value
We need more people hodling Steem, and this can help get them!
Also, think of whaleshares, peerplays, bearshares, and some of the other chain forks that have happened. Each time they go off on their own it causes some disruption to the main chain. Imagine instead of forking all of Steem and moving off to a separate community they instead just issued their own token and stayed right here? They could get the best of both worlds. They'd still be on Steem which would limit the technical requirements of what they would need to setup a new token, they could still tap into the existing user base instead of starting from scratch, but now they can also get their own token with a distribution that may not be as fucked or be as fucked, but now benefiting new people.
Keeping people in the ecosystem and growing this ecosystem is how we moon. SCOT facilitates creating and keeping new communities on the blockchain and that to me represents an amazing human growth potential for Steem and crypto as a whole.
Is there a benefit to the layer 2 solution and this whole side chain thing?
The three biggest positives are timeline to readiness, not requiring Steem hardforks to make changes, and smart contract flexibility.
Speed: I'd like to think SMTs would have already been here, but they aren't. I'd like to think they might get formed this year, but I have my doubts. Every day it seems Steem is slipping a little more on the rankings, and that's bad for price and community size. Getting launched now puts us ahead of any other blockchain in terms of being able to really create a community that you own through tokenization. It also removes some of the bad behavior seen on steem or bad actors. Bad actors likely aren't going to interact much with your posts because they may not receive much steem, but they'll be worth tons of tokens so hopefully they'll be ignored by some of the usual suspects We need growth and we need it now. This gets us going.
Hardforks: If SMTS are built onto the steem blockchain itself then serious changes are going to require hardforks of STEEM. A hardfork is a particularly scary time. Not all of the exchanges are good at handling them, and as a consequence any time they come around we risk being offline with some of the major exchanges for days, weeks, or months. We could also end up with a stopped chain for a while as has happened before. All of that is bad for the price of Steem and subsequently the activity on it. If every time the community wants changes to SMTs we have to hardfork it then that's going to cause challenges to getting changes put into the system and changes when they are put into the system.
When we're on a side chain we can hardfork the side chain without worrying as much about the exchanges. After we make more headway we'll create exchange nodes that the exchanges can run so they can trade our coins, but at the moment we don't have to worry about it. This gives us some flexibility to grow and change the way the tool works without major disruptions to the entire ecosystem.
Smart Contracts: SMTs are essentially a smart contract for distributing tokens. It's pretty robust, but it reminds me of the Henry Ford Quote about the Model T: "it comes in whatever color you want so long as that color is black." Essentially, it's a robust tool, but it can do exactly one set of things. We're instead creating a smart contract platform that has the potential to respond to any if:then statement and create logic around it. We can replicate SMTs as we're doing now, but we don't have to stop there. We can create other contracts and do so faster than the Steem blockchain can be changed.
Cool Shit
Sit back and watch us, spread the word, come get a token, test this tool with us, build a community starting in May, or whatever. It's all voluntary, but right now Steem-Engine has enormous potential and we're in the process of unlocking it. Hopefully you'll join us.
You can find us in Discord here: https://discord.gg/HykXgCQ
Wow this is incredible. At this point in time I just hope Steemit Inc gets their heads out of their asses and fire whoever was in charge of SMTs and just hire you guys... They have really no excuse if you guys are kicking this much ass, this fast....
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Another cool thing that should probably be mentioned is that if SMT's ever do appear and seem to be better than what you guys are creating/have created at the time, you'll always be able to swap your engine tokens into SMT's similar to how many do ICO's or distributions on ERC-20 and then swap them for the mainnet tokens on another blockchain.
I would love to read response to this.
No question. Just a really enlightening comment that might have been left out in the post.
Nice work team! This is very big news for our ecosystem. Thank you for all the hard work you guys put in.
Literally rolling on the floor laughing. 😂😂😂
Blocktrades and you guys manage to get more done then @ned and his gang, in just a fraction of the time..
😂
Steemit.inc is weird.
For real.... And do they have anything to say about it? Not at all... It’s like “Ned and the gang” are just watching and doing nothing at all...
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Steem-Engine is probably the best thing to happen to STEEM, next to Steem Monsters! Looking forward to seeing more community tokens, and the engagement that comes with it.
@aggroed,
I also very near to fulfill my milestone to add my own token from your engine! Great info and hope to get my own token soon!
Cheers~
I'm in. Great job you have going. ^_^
This is simply amazing. I've been reading through your text two times and I'm trying to get my brain around it. Now I try to imagine how it could be used... it's just mind boggling. Imagine you build a list and invite your followers to comment what you write and when they do that they get tokens... What else... You can finally build up communities on steem... man there are so many ideas coming in ;-) Thanks a lot for your great work guys!
Exactly...
I THINK I FINALLY GET IT! THE LIGHT CAME ON! I COULDN'T WRAP MY HEAD AROUND THE WAY STEEM IS EVOLVING BUT BETWEEN THE SHOW THE OTHER DAY AND THIS POST, IT FINALLY MAKES SENSE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR POST. SIMPLE TO THE POINT. MUCH APPRECIATED!
ND SCOT makes me think of NED SCOTT :D
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lool very good point
You were faster than me, I couldn't think of less
hmmmm :)
@aggroed has Steemit Inc commented on Steem Engine at all since you launched it?
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they retweeted it... does that count?
I'm not sure anyone from steemit has really checked it out much tbh
Does not count at all 🤣 I am honestly curious if they are doing anything at all...? Other than shit on Twitter that is... Extremely frustrating and totally unprofessional of them 😬 Looking forward to the day we get our full decentralization and Steemit and Steemit Inc just disappear and we use better front ends and better token creation technology (S-E)
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Truly appreciate everything you do Team Aggroed
> People = Power
It’s 77 times more valuable and powerful than SP
Thanks again guys for everything you do to move our Blockchain forward
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Great Scot!
This is really cool!!
Congratulations, thanks and hats off @aggroed, @yabapmatt, @harpagon, @beggars and the whole team for building this. Looking forward to some more cool shit on the sidechain.
Excellent. Since I am partway through converting @ureka to run on Steem, I am definitely interested in the potential for running a custom token too. Where can I learn more about the staking and issuing process?
I am trying to visualise the process of reward generation for each new token.. Does a separate reward pool exist for each new token type? If so, how is it's value and the value of the new token calculated?
please message me in discord.
This could be bigger than SMTs
Very encouraging post @aggroed! Nice to get some positive news on the future of our Steem blockchain.
Great also to see all of the "helping hands" coming together to make this possible. Congratulations and many thanks!
Supported and resteemed.
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So... we can create different economic models and use Steem as the central bank ;-) This'll be fun!
This is exciting! You guys are rocking it.
Many others should be watching this and figuring out what they can add to the economy
It feels to me like a hostile takeover. There are always consequences. This could be the end.
No, those who are not accomplishing anything might be mad that these guys are doing things! If they don't want the same people doing things over and over, they should also do some things.
:)
I understand, but ... creating a centralized side-chain / cross-chain with mutable smart contracts, what in a technical sense is not a block-chain with immutable smart contracts could bring the steem block-chain to its knee's.
Who maintains the consensus code and implement new features?
Steem is already centralized. The impact is now clear. :)
Thx, I missed that one. :)
Don't mess with me.
I still miss you. I don't know if I should convert SBD with out you
I’ve had enough decentralized nothing. I’ll take some centralized something please, thank you. With a slice of we’ll decentralize later, oh even better!
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Hey, I think I know you from some discord! Oh yeah steemspeak woohoo.
You guys are fast becoming the backbone of this blockchain. I can't express in words how impressed (and grateful) I am to the both of you for this.
Incredible efforts that almost transcend belief, you "awesome" duo!!!
Community websites in May? Are you kidding? This is amazing!!!
You bet! :-)
Thanks for the hard work, guys.
Loved and resteemed
Am glad to be helping testing, this can be one of the most important product for STEEM ever.
@aggroed, Great news brother and after a long time we are seeing some potential and exciting steps towards the SMT Model. Stay blessed and my good wishes are with you and with supporting team.
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@aggroed - I gotta ask, but was the abbreviation SCOT also an intended nod to @ned (Ned Scott) for his contribution to the concept? Wasnt sure if just a coincidence or not.
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Nm. Looks like I just needed to read more thoroughly. ND SCOT. Nice
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You are doing everything super fast
I'm that one guy that doesn't do much but I'm glad to lend a helping hand. I feel more engaged in Steemit and the community by contributing to something other than my own selfish dry posts. So theres that. Steemit community service is fun and engaging.
This might seem like a jerk comment, but I am serious, I feel like I'm a part of something going on here and not just a bystander. Thanks @aggroed
Mind Blown the brilliance of Aggy & team strikes again!
This is really good thing happening in steem ecosystem. We are establishing a stable @usdone token in steemengine. Hope we will be able to live upto the expectations of ourselves and the community.
Good
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I didn't understand any of that, but I'm fucking excited anyway!
Exciting stuff!!
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Sounds EXTREMELY interesting, @aggroed. Love the fact that we do not have to depend on one centralized company’s promises. This is decentralization in the best :)
This post has been included in the latest edition of The Steem News in 10 posts - a compilation of the key news stories on the Steem blockchain.
Great news, I am starting to believe that Steem Engine is the real SMT 👍
Great development. I think this will be awesome for myupcoming academic project. THanks @Aggroed.
So, @aggroed
With these communities centered around a Token, could this community have many other Tokens within it?
...all with their own purpose within the community?
it's all voluntary. There's lots of ways for you to do things.
Great guys! Cool to see how your team is working to make a great future to the chain!
This is so awesome! Everything I've been waiting for and more! I would really like to make a token for the @freedomtribe community! I have my SCOT staked and about to make a #scottest post!
This is absolutely amazing @aggroed, thanks for doing this and keep up the good work.
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I could totally see steem-engine portals being a thing.
wow a useful Ned SCoTt ... im impressed and really like the subtle hint and the work you guys are doing
You Rock! Take my Money and Give me some SCOT :-)
To the Moon... We are moving from Developers, Developers, Developers to Community, Community, Community.
It's great to see all these community driven projects that can change how Steem operates fundamentally. We can't rely on Steemit Inc to do everything, that's why decentralization is such a powerful concept
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Wow! these are fantastic times to be here and experience all thats happening @aggroed & @yabapmatt ! You guys are amazing in all thats been accomplished so far with Steem-engine etc. I have been waiting so long for the SMTs and Appics app to launch where I have well over 2,000 XAP Tokens saved up, that im turning into a skeleton after 2 years!!
What you guys are doing is going to be EPIC ! If its easy enough I would love to create some type of foodie token or foodie pics token but im still not clear on exactly how it works in simple terms, lol!👍❤🙋
This is going to be Legendary!! upped and resteemed
I love this explosion of new technology opportunities that are simple to use and able to aggregate instead of divide people... I can't wait to see how it will evolve!
Resteemed
Hi appreciated @aggored.
I firmly believe that the launch of new Dapps with their own SMT tokens can help the growth of the Steem platform and the strengthening of its currency.
Mainly, it would support the organized development of the community, which can be grouped into micro communities.
Having a good number of decentralized applications (dapps) in the ecosystem is essential to increase the value of the chain of Steem blocks.
For example, the Ethereum blockchain has an 1850 Dapps.
Imagine Steem with 2000 Dapps running. The price of STEEM could exceed historical highs (ATH).
All best, Piotr.
.
I would love to upvote it but I drained my voting power (below 70%) so I need to recharge it first. Till next time :)