Less than 24 hours ago, @steemitblog gave us another update, this time on something yet-to-be-implementd, and, to be honest, very complex. It's called Oracles, and it's intended to be paired with the new SMT layer (when it will be implemented, of course).

For now, all we have is this article - and a video featuring @ned and @theoretical - but there are hopes for a separate whitepaper dedicated entirely to Oracles. Based on this article, I will try to "translate" again the concepts into layman terms and try to grasp their practical use cases.

What Is An Oracle In The Steemit / SMT Ecosystem?

An Oracle is an account that can submit an arbitrary number of accounts to a whitelist. The presence in that whitelist means the Oracle verified the requirements for every account to be there - so, in a sense, an Oracle is a trusted account, vouching for a group of other accounts, on arbitrary rules.

One use case for Oracles is to determine if an account really belongs to a person. But, as you will see, there are many other potential use cases, especially when we pair this trusted function with the SMTs.

What Is The Link Between An Oracle And SMT?

According to the article, when issuing an SMT, you could set up in the creation process up to 5 Oracles, that will establish who are getting that SMT.

Let's say I'm creating a community token, called ROUA (lame, I know, but that's my name). I want to distribute this token to all the people from Spain, above a certain age and who have running as a hobby.

Therefore, I will delegate (pretty much like witnesses are delegated) 3 accounts that I trust on the Steemit bockchain, to create these lists for me. I will have a hypothetical account called @CheckSpanishSpeakingPeople, another one called @CheckAgeRequirements and another one called @CheckIfTheyReallyRun. Each of these accounts are now trusted that they will add on their list people according to the criteria they've been empowered to verify.

So, when people are voting on my articles, only those in any of the 3 lists created by the 3 Oracle accounts above, will receive SMT.

Pretty cool, huh?

How Many Oracles Can We Have For An SMT?

According to the blog post, at least one and up to 5. But you can have any number of rules, like one Oracle in all five, all 5 Oracles in all 5 should be checked when SMTs are distributed. The reason for this limit is that at each vote, the blockchain needs to verify the whitelist, thus making data store requests.

When These Oracles Are Going To Be Implemented?

My hunch is that they won't be implemented when SMTs will be launched and I'm basing this conclusion on this part of the article:

We plan on expanding on the content within this post in the coming months with the release of a new SMT Oracles whitepaper[].

So, it could be months until we hear more about Oracles and their whitepaper, but meanwhile we will have to deliver those SMTs...

The Potential Impact Of Oracles

Although the name is a bit precious, Oracles are nothing but trusted filters implementing arbitrary rules for who gets the rewards.

As of now, the only rule for getting the rewards in the Steemit ecosystem is Steem Power. By implementing these filters, we could add a potentially unlimited number of extra filters, refining the way money is flowing to beneficiaries. And by money I mean SMTs in this case.

Because Oracles are real life accounts and they are providing their lists off-consensus (or pre-consensus, if you want), their implementation seems to me more like a form of in-place governance, shifting the platform towards more niched use-cases.

Strategically, they are a good move. SMTs were a good move too, but one which wasn't made yet. Like in SMTs are not yet launched.

I saluted this idea when it was announced and I said it is brilliant, and genius, but that it will all come down to execution. We're still yet to see that execution. I mean, it's nice to jump to new ideas, in an ElonMusk-esque ADHD kind of way, looking at the next shiny object, but it will really help if we could deliver on the first idea, in the first place.

Don't get me wrong, I'm far from complaining, because I know the "shiny object syndrome" way too well, I'm just trying to understand when and how we will be able to play with SMTs.

After that, I'll be happy to play with Oracles as well.

---

I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.

---

Wanna know when you're getting paid?

	I know the feeling. That's why I created steem.supply, an easy to use and accurate tool for calculating your Steemit rewards

It's free to use, but if you think this is a useful addition, I'd appreciate your witness vote.

Thank you!

Psst: new to Steemit? Start Here