The Steem development team published an update a few hours ago (kudoz to @steevc for pointing this out to me) about the SMT status. SMT stands for "Smart Media Tokens" if you don't know what it is and it's going to be really big if executed correctly.

I've been watching the Github repository dedicated to SMT development closely for the last few months so there's really nothing new for me in that update, but I do consider it important from a PR point of view. 2018 seems to have started on a more professional note from the Steemit team, something that we should be happy about. I still remember the days when all we received in terms of status updates was a long string of silent days. So hey, the fact that they're taking the time to tell us they're working on stuff - and on what stuff they are working on - is a good thing.

Now, a few blurbs from the update, if you want the TL-DR version:

development is going on steadily
there will be a gradual development (a.k.a "stubbing") of features
automated market-makers will be launched in the first iteration
most important: there will be soon a testnet for those who want to test SMT before implementing them on the main chain

I know there is already a test environment and a test suite built, but the fact that we are going to have soon a public testnet is very encouraging.

As you may already know, I'm very excited about this new feature and one of the projects I'm working on, @runcoin, is relying heavily on it. As a matter of fact, RUNCOIN is going to be translated from OpenLedger, where it's already issued, and become a Smart Media Token on Steemit.

Really looking forward to the public testnet and congrats to the team!

I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.