Welcome to the seventh day of the May 30 days writing challenge. If you don't know what this challenge is about, please have a look at the introductory post. Also, at the end of each article I will post the links to all the posts in the challenge (if you're joining the challenge, I encourage you to do the same). Also, if you join, don't forget to tag your post with #challenge30days and also leave a comment with the link of your post, so I can evaluate if you're one of the 3 lucky Steemians that will get a full upvote from me.

Name 3 Things That Must Be Done Immediately To Make Steemit.com A Better Experience

Today's topic will certainly create some conversations and I'm very well aware of that. Our experience of the world is deeply personal, so each of us have very different perceptions. Hence, we will come up with very different improvements.

And that's a good thing. At the end of the day, I'm not looking for a one-size-fits-all kind of approach, but to gather as much information as possible about who are the people building this community and where do they want to take it.

So, here are the top 3 things that I think are a must right now, in order to improve our Steemit experience:

1. Consistent Signup / OAuth Layer

It sounds technical, but it isn't. It's already out there, in the form of steemconnect.com, but in my opinion it needs a lot more documentation and a better UI / UX. A consistent signup / OAuth layer will dramatically increase the adoption of this product, because more and more people will start to build applications on top of the STEEM blockchain. And, given the nature of the blockchain, the main difficulty in building on top of it is related to the public / private keys management. SteemConnect streamlines this process to a very high degree, but it still needs more coverage and a bit of polish.

2. A Better Wallet / Desktop App

Right now, the financial part of Steemit is done in a rather cumbersome way. The wallet also serves as an inbox for paid messages (which is a good thing and I would want to see this trend picking up) and it's rather difficult to set up procedures (for instance, powering up automatically a certain amount of your generated STEEM, or claiming the rewards automatically, etc). @jesta built a very nice tool, called Vessel, which is basically a desktop wallet and I'm a constant user of it. Adding posting capabilities to it and making it like an improved desktop version of the web app will certainly increase usage.

3. Hivemind / Communities Layer

This one is obvious. The Hivemind layer will add a lot more "social media" pizzazz to the user experience and may increase retention, which is probably the worst metrics of Steemit right now. By watching the Github repository, I have reasons to believe this will happen before the first two above. @roadscape is working really hard at this project and it's already looking very good.

Wait, No SMT?

As you probably observed, I didn't put SMT on this list. While I consider SMT to be the main engine for future STEEM growth, I don't see it necessarily as an immediate improvement for the platform. The more I think of it, the more I tend to believe that SMT will probably generate a bit of confusion in the initial stages. Don't get me wrong: I still think SMT is the biggest and most important thing that STEEM must implement this year, but I also think there are other small things that needs to be done before, sort of like paving the road for it.

SMTs are like getting a Lambo the next day you got your driver license. If you don't have any real life driving experience with, let's say, a Ford, for at least 10,000 km, then chances are you will stick your Lambo in the first lightning pole on the side of the road.

So, that was my list. Looking forward for yours. Be as personal as you can and name whatever you think it's important for you. Don't forget to add a link to your post in the comments so I can check it out.

Previous Posts In The Challenge

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.

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May 30 Days Writing Challenge - Day Seven: Name 3 Things That Must Be Done Immediately To Make Steemit.com A Better Experience