Symbiont{s} |Steem DAO | Wallet Development Update 4

Greetings!

Following an extended interruption in funding, details of which were covered in our previous post, we are pleased to announce that we are back with a new update.

While Steem was positioned from the outset as a social media blockchain, its underlying technology was always capable of supporting a much broader range of use cases. That said, a close look at the features that shipped and those progressively introduced through each fork reveals a deliberate and consistent focus on enhancing the on-chain social experience. This is not necessarily a poor strategic choice. User acquisition is notoriously difficult, and anchoring a blockchain around a compelling social layer is a reasonable way to build a captive user base that can later be leveraged across multiple verticals.

One would reasonably expect that after this length of time, account creation would be among the most fundamental, universally accessible operations available to all users without friction. Yet to this day, Steem users who possess the means to actively participate in the onboarding process are still met with an obscure and convoluted experience, forced to rely on closed third-party solutions to accomplish what should be a straightforward task. It is quite remarkable that certain key features, despite existing at the protocol level, remain inaccessible to the general public in any open and standardized form. As noted previously, this is most likely a reflection of the core Steemit team having directed their focus and resources toward other priorities.

What makes this particularly striking is that the feature we integrated into the wallet has existed at the blockchain level for 8 years. HF20 introduced the ability for users to claim Account Creation Tokens using Resource Credits, marking a meaningful departure from the older methods that required users to either delegate Steem Power or spend STEEM directly in order to create new accounts.

List of changes

🟩 Green: Pre-existing implementations

🔵 Blue: Newly added implementations

🟥 Red: Planned or pending implementations

🟪 Purple: Community-suggested-added implementations

Claiming Account Creation Tokens

Users are now able to claim Account Creation Tokens directly from within the wallet in a straightforward manner. Upon opening the form, users are presented with a clear overview of how many Account Creation Tokens they currently hold, alongside how many additional Account Creation Tokens they are eligible to claim, calculated against their available Resource Credits and liquid STEEM balance. They are then given the option to proceed using either RC or liquid STEEM as the funding method. While the STEEM cost is deterministic, being set by the chain and governed by witnesses, computing the equivalent RC cost proved to be a more nuanced undertaking, though an interesting one. An additional consideration was the handling of bulk claims, particularly for accounts holding significant Steem Power. This introduced its own set of constraints, most notably around transaction size limits and the broader impact of large operations on block capacity.

Key Generator

Key generation is, for the majority of users, a largely inconsequential concern under normal circumstances. However, it becomes critically important in specific situations. On one end of the spectrum, there are security-conscious users who may prefer to generate their own key pairs as part of the account creation process, rather than delegating that responsibility to a third party. On the other end, there are users whose accounts have been compromised and who require new keys as part of the account recovery process. Accounts originally created through Steemit benefit from a built-in recovery mechanism that simplifies this considerably. However, users who opted to self-host their account creation will need to engage with the recovery process independently, without that safety net.

Account creation

The account creation interface allows users to create new Steem accounts using either Claimed Account Tokens or liquid STEEM. The form validates the desired username in real time, immediately flagging any conflicts with existing accounts. Key generation is handled directly within the interface by providing a Master Password. The tool deterministically derives all four key pairs: Owner, Active, Posting, and Memo, presenting both the private and public keys for each. Prior to finalising account creation, users are required to acknowledge that all generated keys must be exported and stored securely, as the platform has no ability to recover them once the session ends. Keys can be exported in either .TXT or PDF format for safekeeping.

Other Improvements

On the quality of life side, dark mode has been implemented across the interface, the FAQ section has been updated to reflect the latest changes, and further testing is currently underway to ensure stability and performance.

• Our next update will likely be the last update, considering that funding will stop on April 1st. We will make sure to ship as many of the remaining features as possible and make a point about the finances and overall progress.

^{// Human-written, AI-enhanced}

Thank you for your continued support,

The Symbionts Team,

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