The day finally arrived. We have the coding for the Smart Media Token protocol done and the testnet is up and running. Developers now can now work with the protocol to see what it offers while also looking for bugs.
This is going to be a rather extensive process since so much of Steem's base coding is going to be affected by this update.
We are seeing something revolutionary. Steem is going to be a completely different animal once this testing is completed and the protocol goes live on the mainnet. A great deal of what affected the system is no longer going to be relevant.
SMTs along with the Resource Credit Pool is about numbers. These two features are what is going to offer Steem the potential to onboard a massive amount of users. Instead, of Steem attracting a few people here and there, websites will bring Steem to their existing user base. Many sites have millions of monthly users. Steem will have the ability to start tapping into it.
The goal is to tokenize the web. A primary question is whether or not any website would reject this idea?
Steem is providing a turn key solution to any website owner/operator to enable the ability to monetize the site via tokenization while also adding the Proof-of-Brain concept. Those sites will have the flexibility to establish the parameters as they desire meaning they can cater to their audience.
Nevertheless, when handed a turnkey solution for very little money, who is going to say no?
As one who believes the Internet is going to embrace tokenization and it will happen over the next few years, this is a really big deal.
Ultimately, this is going to send the activity on Steem through the roof. When there are hundreds of different sites, with decent traffic, all transacting on Steem, we see an entirely new world. Instead of 35K accounts transacting, there will be 50 times that. Even someone who is dumping a token received for a comment on some website is still transacting.
While markets have their own mind when it comes to pricing, what we do know is this is going to create enormous demand on STEEM. This is the biggest shift that is going to take place.
To start, the Resource Credit Pool is what is enabling applications to get RC for their users to operate. This is part of the new coding and will go live in the same hard fork as SMTs. Resource Credits are tied to Steem Power. Thus, to provide enough RCs for all interested users, there needs to be enough people holding SP. This is going to provide incentive to existing users to power up but we also could see investors jump on this. Leasing out RC might become the next major investment vehicle we see on Steem.
Secondly, all SMT tokens are paired with STEEM. Here again, we have a point that I think most are overlooking. Steem-Engine did a great job providing token creation to projects on Steem. However, none of them are top 5,000 sites. In spite of that, according to 
Can you imagine the amount of STEEM that is going to be required if there are even just a handful of Top 5000 websites that use the protocol to create tokens?
Liquidity is a vital component to all of this. We just got a major lesson in what happens when liquidity is not present with the Fed injected tens of billions overnight into the RePo market for banks. The difference here is we cannot create millions of STEEM overnight. Thus, liquid STEEM is necessary to keep the market flowing. That will have to come from somewhere.
The wealth that is going to be generated off this blockchain is going to be enormous. Picture the day when there are thousands of websites all distributing millions of tokens on a daily basis. Certainly, there will be many which do not have great monetary value although the "long tail" shows us that it all adds up.
I believe this is going to be a game that people want to get involved with. Cryptocurrency adoption is rather slow for a number of different reasons. To start, most out there require one to "buy" in. Since people are required to put up money, this is something they either they will not, or cannot, do. With this system, no money is required.
We also see that things are rather complicated. While this also applies to Steem, it is far simpler than most blockchains. The fact that the wallets uses names instead of a long string of characters is a major step.
Also, by entering via a known website, the learning curve is greatly reduced. The layout of said site is already familiar. Certainly there will be adaptions with the additional features but the curve will be minimal. The only other hang up is the key system which will take a bit of explaining. Fortunately, with this spreading, we could see hundreds of "how-to" videos popping up overnight.
Just search YouTube to see how many videos there are on setting up a Wordpress site.
We are literally witnessing a major evolution of Steem taking place right before our eyes. It was a long 2+ years yet we are finally seeing the finish line. The release of SMTs on the mainnet will radically alter the entire ecosystem. Instead of trying to get a few hundred active users, we are going to see thousands per day who are already active within their own "communities". This number, of course, could go much higher depending upon the clout of some of the sites that adopt the protocol.
There is one final point I want to make. What do you think this place will look like with 5M users?
Before you laugh, keep in mind that an application with 5M users on the Internet is still rather small. Think of the online games that top this in the first month. Yet here we are talking about an entire platform with that number. Even if this is reached, Steem will still be a small player across the online world.
And that is the grand potential I see from Steem 2.0.
It is going to be a completely different ecosystem.
Here is the complete announcement by Steemit Inc.
https://steempeak.com/smt/@steemitblog/smt-testnet-is-live
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