SMT as Bonus Points

I've read this post by @alexvan this morning. It's not seldom that Alex posts offer very interesting practical advice. His post from today inspired me to write my post from today.

We often think of SMT in conjunction with a reward pool that will be distributed much like on Steem or in tribes.

On top of that, SMTs have the ICO component, which offers SMT creators the possibility to raise money. Whether they want to do that and tackle any potential heat from let's say SEC, if they don't have the legal and taxes side perfectly sorted out, that's another thing.

But here's a different use case for SMT that Alex mentioned in his post: using SMT as reward gifts.

In his example, he thought of SMT as a way to reduce or remove maintenance costs of properties in a small village, information about which would also be kept on Steem.

But we can extend this any way we want.

Here's one way, applicable to almost any merchant, since everyone is familiar with bonus points, loyalty points etc.

Step 1. Merchant creates a SMT. No inflation, no ICO. Let's call it GIFT.

Step 2. Merchant integrates GIFT in his business on a "bonus points" program. Bonus point (1 GIFT) will have a nominal discount value (not the same as market value).

Step 2.1. Customer receives a set number of GIFT tokens for every purchase above a certain level.

Step 2.2. Customer receives a coupon code to use if he/she burns a certain amount of the GIFT token. The coupon value is based on the nominal discount value of the GIFT token, not the market value, although I suspect they would be pretty close to each other. For example, if 1 GIFT has a nominal discount value of 1 USD (or 1 STEEM), burning 10 GIFT tokens would offer a coupon of 10 USD (or 10 STEEM). There should also be pre-set amounts of tokens to be burned to receive coupons of different values.

Step 2.3. Customer can apply the coupon to a future purchase from the merchant to receive the discounted price.

What are the benefits of a SMT instead of a traditional "bonus points" program?

• when you have the system implemented and working once, you can reuse it over and over again with subsequent programs, with minimal modifications.
• merchants don't like to exchange bonus points for money for two reasons:
  • they want you to keep buying, and bonus points keep you prisoner, while money you can take somewhere else
  • they use this system especially as an alternative to real money

Where a SMT helps is that there is a market for them, so customers who want to sell their discounts can do that, but there is always someone holding the bonus points (the GIFT token). So there is always a potential customer for the merchant, who buys the token. GIFT tokens don't just liquidate and that's it.

Or at least that's how I see it.

Another potential use case are discounts for travel agencies, hotels, etc. I see even more use cases for NFTs, and they are coming too, at least on Steem-Engine...