📸 SteemSnap – A New Photo App for the Steem Blockchain
Hey everyone,
I'd like to introduce SteemSnap – a photo app I built specifically for the Steem Blockchain. It's live right now at steemsnap.app.
What is SteemSnap?
SteemSnap is a Progressive Web App (PWA) that lets you publish photos directly to the Steem Blockchain. No detour through Steemit, no fiddling with Markdown formatting – take a photo, add a description, publish. Done.
The app works on any smartphone and can be installed on your homescreen like a native app.
Features
- Camera Integration: Take a photo or pick one from your gallery
- Filters: Edit your images with various filters right in the app
- Blockchain Publishing: Your post is stored as a full Steem post on the blockchain – image, title, description, and tags
- Feed: All SteemSnap posts in a dedicated feed (tag: #steemsnap)
- Discover: Browse posts by New, Trending, Top, and Photographer
- Multilingual: 11 languages – English, German, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Turkish
- Profile: Your photos, Steem Power, and earned rewards at a glance
- Daily Limit: 3 photos per day – quality over quantity
- Beneficiary: 10% of rewards go to @steemsnap for continued development
Technical Stack
For the devs – here's how SteemSnap is built:
- Frontend: Vue.js 3 with Vuetify (Material Design)
- Backend: .NET 8 (C#) Web API
- Database: MySQL 8 in Docker
- Deployment: Docker Compose on an IONOS VPS in Germany
- Blockchain Integration: Direct Steem API calls (condenser_api)
- Image Hosting: Images stored on server, served through steemitimages.com proxy
- PWA: Installable on iOS and Android, Service Worker for offline capability
- Authentication: Login with Steem Posting Key (session-based, key is never stored on the server)
Why SteemSnap?
Steem has great infrastructure, but it lacks modern, user-friendly apps. Most people don't want to learn Markdown to post a photo. They want to open their phone, take a picture, and share it. That's exactly what SteemSnap does.
My goal is to bring people to the blockchain who have never had any contact with crypto or Steem before. A photo app is the perfect entry point – everyone takes photos, everyone understands the concept.
What's Next
SteemSnap is just the beginning. Starting today, I'm committing to releasing a new app or tool for the Steem Blockchain every single month. 12 months, 12 projects.
What's already live and what's coming next:
| # | Project | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | SteemSnap | ✅ Live | Photo App – steemsnap.app |
| 2 | SteemYum | 🔧 Beta | Recipe App – Final release this weekend – steemyum.app |
| 3 | SteemAuth | 🔜 Planned | Simplified signup (email + password, keys handled in background) |
| 4 | SteemPay | 🔜 Planned | Micro-payment system for Steem apps (prepaid account, one-click payments) |
| 5 | SteemAPI | 🔜 Planned | Public API + simplified Developer Kit |
SteemAuth will solve the onboarding problem: New users sign up with email and password, the blockchain account is created in the background. No keys, no master password, no scaring people away.
SteemPay enables micro-payments within Steem apps. Developers can finally get paid for their tools without requiring users to pull out their Active Key for every transaction.
SteemAPI will provide a public full node hosted in Germany, along with a simplified SDK. Instead of cryptic RPC calls, a few lines of code are all you need to interact with the blockchain.
Witness
As of today, I'm also running as a Witness: @greece-lover (currently rank #154). I set up my own Witness Node – not as a prestige project, but as infrastructure for my apps. If you'd like to support this, you can vote here: https://steemitwallet.com/~witnesses → greece-lover
Feedback
I'd love to hear your feedback – technical, conceptual, or simply whether the app works for you. Try SteemSnap, take some photos, and let me know what you think.
The app is open source in spirit – if you want to contribute or suggest features, just reach out.
steemsnap.app – Give it a try.
Posted by @greece-lover | Witness | Developer | One app per month for Steem