According to this recent post by @therealwolf SMTs and oracles are no longer scheduled for the next hard fork, and they may not even surface until next summer!

Please keep in mind that the user who wrote this statement is a user on Steem and while he is quite smart, he is not a Steemit Inc. employee.

NB - if you ever need a perfect example of cynicism this post is it - in which @therealwolf basically condemns the current incentives system, but at the same time he runs a voting bot which profits from this system.

First of: thanks for mentioning me ;)

I don't believe I was cynical. That's your impression and it's ok.

However, I would like to clarify something:

My goal with the post was to explain my stance on the current system and how it doesn't allow or give enough incentives for big content creators to create on Steem.

But Steemit Inc is working hard on changing that and that's also what the post was about. How the coming changes will hopefully change the system for the better.

With that said: Steem is an amazing blockchain and I've been working full time on Steem related projects for nearly a year now.

And Smartsteem, the service I have build, has the goal to improve the current system by giving every user a voice through promotion purchases. (vote-buying)

So if you don't like promotion-services, no problem - that's your right! However, they are part of the current system and as long as people need them, they have the same right to be here as your opinion :)

And if the next system makes them obsolute, even better!