@steemhunt will fund their initiative by growing their account via upvoting. With an account of almost 300K SP, its votes are very powerful. Between self upvoting and curation, they stand to make a nice revenue stream. This is how they are funding it.
The tokens do not have value since they arent publicly traded. It is getting involved in the ICO without buying in. Those who delegate STEEM get issued SMTs tokens that will be converted to the STEEM blockchain when that protocol is released. At that time, the @steemhunt token will be paired with STEEM meaning it can be traded for STEEM.
So, in this case, self voting and friend voting to maximize earnings and get free publicity is good? And if the SMT does not come soon enough they can move to another blockchain later on. Like Vice.
Did you see the @timsaid post about Explorio on the trending page?
If this takes off as a wide spread funding mechanism, I think it will be good because...
-it almost guarantees that Steemit develops another token for content rewards probably using account based voting.
-a fair bit of the SP delegated to bots could end up with these projects. Since these projects are being built on the STEEM blockchain, they could impact the value of the ecosystem...especially if a couple hit it big.
-it will increase the value of STEEM that is out there since those that cannot get it delegated to them as the amount available gets scarcer, they will have to hit the open markets.
As for the switching to vice if there is a delay in SMT, I dont think Vice is working on the protocol. I would imagine they are going to take it from STEEM once it is released.
Thanks a lot for this further explanation. It remains difficult for me. But normally it just takes some time and then I understand.
I have to say, that from my perspective this looks like a very nice subject for a post. Because it looks like this is just to complex. Or do you think that 99% of people (so just ask a few in a shopping mall or bus station) will be able to understand this within 15 minutes?
Honestly most wont care to start.
They will see the opportunity to go on D.tube and earn DTube tokens for interacting on there.
Over time they will figure the nuances of converting those tokens to STEEM (or they might convert them to USD if DTube token becomes big enough).