Alright guys! I just completed a super easy swap of a few steem to tron (trx) using the new Steemscan steem swap service. Not to jump into some early praises but the experience is worth sharing.

Just in case you are just getting to hear about this for the first time, Steemscan is multi-option steem exchange application developed by roadofrich and futureshock. Steemscan enables easy swap of steem coins to other cyptocurrencies available on the platform without having to create a profile on the or give out some important user details, in contrast to custodian exchanges, Steemscan offers a seamless exchange option with swift functionalities to ease the user of the biggest burdens of trading their steem for other cryptocurrencies.

Steemscan currently offers three exchange options for steem, this includes Bitcoin (of course!), USDT and Tron. Using Steemscan, users can easily exchange their steem with any of the listed options WITHOUT CREATING AN ACCOUNT or performing any KYC verifications on the platform (Steemscan). Visit Steemscan.

Apart from the swap services, steemscan is also an advanced explorer for the steem blockchain and presents most of the information you need about activities on the steem blockchain.

After spending some time on the website and using a couple of services available, here’s my evaluation of the platform.

User interface and overall appearance

First, kudos to the design team of this good-looking platform! Steemscan offers a user-friendly appearance, due to its simple and self-explanatory design, any noob will find it very easy to swap their steem on steemscan without external instructions or guidance. The design aligns with the goal of the platform, “fast and easy”. The landing page quickly showcases some available services. A click on the hamburger menu displays rest of the services to allow users select desired services.

The simple typography, colour selection and use of whitespace further simplifies the appearance of the website and enables users quickly understand the website.

One thing you really got to love about the user interface is the dark mode option! For someone who uses the dark mode for every application where it is available, the availability of the dark mode on steemscan is one of the most impressive features of the user interface (for me).

The dark mode is addictive, so forgive, I’ll be using it for the rest of this review.

User experience

That was some nice job with the user interface! Apart from the appearance of the platform, the user interaction also presents a nice experience in several aspect of the usability such as:

Website portability: I’ll like to mention that I visited the platform using a 16gb RAM, 8th gen. Core i7 processor, windows 10 personal computer and to an extent this may influence the website’s functionality, anyways, I believe the differences won’t be much. However, the steemscan website presents ‘no lagging’ smooth, responsive functionality. Such flexibility is perfect for the type of services it presents.

Due to its flexible design, the processing speed is notably ‘fast’! and updates with any changes to the input or data received from the back end. I took some time to click around the website; the transition speed and interactions happens smoothly presenting an overall cool user experience.

Swap transaction functionalities: Bulk of the utility of Steemscan lies on the ability of users to exchange their steem for the currencies available on the platform without hassles. Steemscan exchange interface is a pretty easy to understand environment. Amount of the desired cryptocurrency to be received is automatically calculated using the current exchange rates and the amount of steem you wish to exchange, this updates with any changes to the desired amount of steem you wish to swap. Transaction fee is relative to the amount of steem you wish to swap. From my calculations, current transaction fee is 1% of the worth of steem you wish to exchange.

Transaction speed: Transaction speed usually depends largely on the speed of the receiving blockchain (for the coin you swapped your steem to), apart from this, transactions on steemscan is instant!. I had to use a fast blockchain (tron), BTC and USDT usually have longer confirmation time, transaction was instant and the Tron was received within 50 (fifty) seconds of the swap, this is VERY fast when compared to custodian exchanges.

User privacy and security: Steemscan ‘quick convert’ is purely a swap service and requires only your receiving address and of course the coins you wish to swap, hence there are no risks of misuse of user information as no user information is required to perform essential activities on the platform. However, I’ll like to mention that steem is not a mimblewimble blockchain, so your transactions can be found on the blockchain…lol. Anyways, I’m sure you knew that earlier.

Final remarks and personal recommendations

While I commend the team for the job done so far, I mean this looks great and it’s only just starting! But, from a personal perspective some additions need to be included in the road map and this include adding more exchange options to the platform such as:

A swap service for steem backed dollars (sbd)
And more exchange options such as Etherum and other cryptocurrency
While the platform is meant to be “steem centered” it will be great (if possible) to make these available options inter-convertible, like converting other cryptocurrencies to steem (or/and SBD) using steemscan.
Second, introducing a loyalty reward scheme to incentivize users of the platform will further promote constant use of the service by steem holders and as well other cryptocurrency enthusiast (if the inter-convertibility feature is implemented). This can be done by using a steem smart contract token to reward users who completes a swap on the platform. If possible, this token can be used to pay transaction fees on the platform.

Finally, I must say, the varying transaction fee may pose some issues for users who wish to swap a considerably big amount of steem using steemscan, with the relative transaction fee, bulk sellers stand lesser chances of using the platform, hence, it would be great if the transaction fee could be pegged at a fixed amount to give equal opportunities to both bulk and unit sellers.