3 challenges why STEEM is not listed on most multicurrency wallets

There was a very important question recently by Steemit community on why STEEM can't be added to more wallets. I decided that is a very important topic but there's no answer on the web and on Steemit platform itself so here we go.

Account creation is paid

As we all know in order to become a member of Steem blockchain you need to have an account. That is fundamentally different from other blockchains where you have plain addresses. The challenge with account system is that is should be paid to prevent generation of spam addresses and uncontrollable number of fake votes via bots.

That also means that the account creation should be implemented in the wallet itself. This will enable a steady growth of new Steem accounts outside of Steemit interface.

Apparently the import of existing wallets can be accomplished but due to multiple key structure (posting, active, owner) it creates lots of technical obstacles for developers. There's also a Steemconnect option but it may not be the best solution either because typically wallets are written on native languages (for Android - Java or Kotlin, for iOS - ObjectiveC or Swift) and outside services for authentication may not fit withing existing architecture. I may be wrong on this one but I don't see Jaxx/Coinomi/Coinbase embedding Steemconnect in their wallet.

Steem blockchain size is quite high

According to Blocktivity Steem blockchain processes over 800,000 transactions that makes it one of the most used blockchains. That also implies that the growth of the blockchain size itself is not slowing down. The worst part for cryptocurrency wallet providers is their need of running a full node for each of the coins. To do that you can either use your own server or to run a server on one of the VPS providers (DigitalOcean, OVH, @privex, etc.)

Depending on your choice you might end up with paying thousands of dollars (for your own server) or between $700 to $900 each month just for maintaince of a single Steem node (ideally you would want backup nodes as well so you got my point).

Thanks to the RocksDB decision that was made recently the costs will be reduced significantly after the switch where the blockchain will be stored.

I would also suggest Steem and other dev teams to consider the creation of a lightweight wallet, something that is successfully used by various mobile and desktop Dash wallets. Check Electrum as an example.

You can't just implement one feature of the blockchain

Lastly, when you add new coin into the wallet, your customers won't stop asking and begging about the whole feature set that this particular blockchain supports. In Steem we have voting, multiple account type and permission levels, power ups, purchases of Steem tokens (STEEM, SBD, STEEM POWER). SMTs will be an extra challenge itself.

To sum up, it takes a lot of human resources to add and maintain STEEM in cryptocurrency wallet. It's not just adding one more token to the app. Hope that helps.

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