Yes, but how are users going to get value out of DEC if they can't exchange it for something else?
If SMTs are nothing more than "in-store credit". Then, what's the point? That already exists in our world right now. We don't need a public blockchain for that. Companies should just run their own private chains instead.
Unless the whole point is making STEEM harder to get. Then, I get ya.
It can be exchanged to STEEM on Steem-Engine. For SMTs there will be a decentralized marketplace where all the tokens are paired with STEEM, so you can buy and sell tokens all you want, they have monetary value attached to them. The amount of it depends on the type of business/community and how well they manage to create utility for it.
That is going to be much more costly and harder plan when instead you can easily just create a token for a fee on a platform where all the bottom work is done for you. Think of Steem as the Wordpress for cryptocurrencies – creating something that used to be technical coding stuff with a visual UI. Creating a SMT in a second is going to be much more attractive than figuring private chain solutions.
Okay. That was what I was clarifying. The SMTs would have to derive value from STEEM.
I am hesitant about getting rid of the reward pool, but hey, it'll make STEEM more scarce that way.