There is a very interesting develop taking place and it is hard to size up exactly what it means. However, knowing the person behind this, I would imagine it is progressing forward.
Dan laid out his vision which, obviously, pertains to 3Speak. This can be summed up in the phrase "tokenizing communities". It is something we all heard before so no major revelation there. We know 3Speak looks to be censorship resistance and the content put on there will eventually be immutable.
The growth plan is to offer content creators a means of making more money than they do on YouTube. Through the payout of advertising on 3Speak, the goal is to combine this with tokenization to offer those individuals the ability to form a community that not only increases their rewards but, also, their followers.
Thus far, nothing here that was not stated before. However, this is where things get very interesting.
This is what was written in the post:
The first step in this vision has and always will be "SMTs" or a form of them. Whether it be layer 1 or 2, I am controlling what I can work on and that is layer 2. I believe SMTs are the silver bullet for Hive. That is why my focus is shifting to decentralizing Hive Engine. The potential in a decentralized sidechain with IBC to eth and other chains is so massive I can't begin to tell you how many doors this will unlock for Hive.
The bold was added by me.
I feel this should really get some attention. What exactly is meant by this? Is Dan working with the Hive-Engine team to decentralize that platform, something many have discussed? Or is he, along with another team, developing his own sidechain that he will instantly decentralize? If it is the later, certainly layer 2 tokens could be created in a fashion similar to H-E.
It further goes on to say this:
Tokens + Ads, that's the formula. You give a content creator the ability to create their own token. Give them tools to easily spin up a front end (like tribes) with plug & play ads on their front end. To display an ad on the creator's community front page you need to buy x amount of the creator's tokens, shout out to
@imwatsi for buidling this.
Again, the bold in this paragraph was added by me.
So is this already built out or in the process? It does not sound like this is something that is in the planning stage. My inference is there is development taking place meaning we are further down the road than just talking about it.
Of course, this is all speculation so it will be interesting to see what other information comes out about this.
That said, the idea of advertising coupled with tokenization changes things a great deal. As stated earlier, a lot of this is not new. It was discussed on Hive for a number of years. How long ago were SMTs announced? 3 years. That is a long time to be bantering about something in hopes that it comes to fruition.
Dan also made the point clear that he is focusing upon where he can. At this time, the opportunity to develop is on the second layer. The base layer is being upgraded tomorrow. If all goes well there, according to a past post by 
What comes out of all of this is anyone's guess. We could end up with a number of different options over the next 6-9 months. Hive-Engine is already in place and the team keeps adding features to that entire ecosystem. If Dan is creating his own platform for tokenization, that will be a second solution people can turn to. Finally, it there is eventually something added to the base layer, that would be a third. Ironically, after waiting so long, this all could happen in a relatively quick period of time.
One thing I can say is we are seeing a host of projects that are working towards outreach. Some have promoted in their posts such as Leofinance. There are others, however, that have not been public about what is taking place yet are developing applications and plug-ins to work with other social media platforms and blockchains.
What seems stagnant is actually buzzing on the development end of things. How quickly all of this rolls out is unclear at this point. However, we do know things are happening which will eventually produce applications and platforms for people to use.
Now that the handcuffs from Steemit Inc were removed, all the different developers appear to have a new take on things. Many are working on projects that can have a large impact.
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