great post @lestatisticien and very informative for those who were previously unaware of how it all works!!
Tried to give your question a brief answer in our latest episode of Crypto Nights (specifically about how Crypto Nights will encourge SMT development) but we will look to answer it in more broad terms in future episodes.
Hope you can check it out.
Alex
Thanks a lot Alex. I would welcome your suggestions re. things to take into account as the research develops further (pl. see my two replies of tonight above).
I'll check Crypto Nights once more in the next day or so. By focusing on what Crypto Nights can do to help the SMT project to be successful, you will be providing a valuable service. For one thing, there is far too much 'hoopla and celebration' at this point when even the software engineering for SMTs is not not yet completed (according to a new post I saw a dar or so ago).
I'm not saying we should be pessimistic. I am saying we should 'put our heads down and get to work' because of all the loose ends that to be tied up. This SMT project is far more than putting out some cute new software engineering.