Last days discovered - again - how a pain in the ass the decentralised crypto space can be. Not sure, but for some reason I have the urge to write about my experience. Perhaps just because I need to tell someone else - you dear reader - since none of my friends wants to hear about it. But perhaps also to give a hint to our ecosystem. We still need to create tons of stuff to make our lives easier and be ready to onboard more users. Users from our own crypto space. Users from outside. The latter do need a super easy and flawless UX (User eXperience) to keep them onboard. That is a given.
My Story
My story started with a new IDO launched by my favourite launchpad 'TenseT'. Weeks ago I was informed about this launch. Being a bit lazy from time to time, it was only a day (last Monday) before the IDO I started to look into moving and converting funds. Finding funds wasn't too difficult. Had HBD on our chain. Moving the funds was a bit more complicated. The IDO was taking place at BASEchain, the L2 'Optimism' based L2 chain to the Ethereum chain.
"Shouldn't be too difficult, right?"
Well, what seemed not too difficult, turned out in more than an hour of work to get USDC ready on BASEchain.
You shall know, that I am from Europe which essentially means: Less CEX support and limited market support. Though I used an Ethereum to BASE bridge last year - before the Ethereum GAS fees skyrocketed - I decided to avoid such a route to save on GAS costs.
"But what route should I take?" The search was on.
image source: from TenseT website - the GEM section - a screenshot
In a Nutshell
In summary, I had to take the following steps to get some of my HBD funds as USDC onto the BASEchain.
- Swap HDB for HIVE on the HIVE chain
- Transfer HIVE to MEXC
- Sell HIVE for USDT
- Transfer USDT to OKX
- Sell USDT for USDC
- Sell USDC for ETH
- Transfer ETH to Metamask on BASEchain
- Sell ETH for USDC
Eight steps only, you think. But I left out a few intermediate steps, including:
- Create a MEXC account
- KYC at OKX (I already had an account, but not KYCed)
- Verify Metamask wallet with OKX (part of the KYC requirements imposed by OKX/Europe)
You MUST LOVE the layered approach taken by too many ecosystems. These days such architecture received a fancy name: 'Modular Architecture'. Though it seems modular when e.g. using the L1 chain Ethereum to store information, and leaving the Smart Contracts and service business logic for another layer to solve, it isn't increasing the User eXperience. In fact: The UX is destroyed. Totally!
image source: from TenseT website - the GEM section - a screenshot
Intermezzo
Wondering why we have advocates in our community for a multi-layer architecture for our HIVE ecosystem. Layer 1, Layer 2, perhaps Layer 3, Layer 4 up to Layer N? Sure, a modular architecture, but how will the average user deal with this? Even though transferring funds from a chain like HIVE Engine to our HIVE core layer isn't too difficult, I noticed a few hiccups in doing so the other day. Last Monday evening to be more exact.
Some of those hiccups:
- TribalDEX didn't work when I needed it
- PeakD didn't show my HIVE Engine tokens
- Didn't know BeeSwap: well I knew about BeeSwap but never used it - This one worked for me
- HIVE internal market produced an error when I tried to open it from PeakD
I was able to solve all the issues. Not too complex issues for yours truly, but issues nevertheless.
The HIVE internal market got an upgrade: COOL!
However, when I tried to open the internal market from PeakD, it didn't provide me with a login screen for Keychain. It simply moved on to show me an uninspiring and uninformative error page. When I opened the URL in a different browser without Keychain installed, it opened at the login screen and presented me with the Keychain option. Had to install Keychain in that browser, import my keys, and voilá, I was back in business.
Nutshell Sidenotes
Not all CEXs with HIVE markets are allowed in Europe anymore
Perhaps good to know for all those interested. When living and having residency in Europe - in the Netherlands more specifically - a few additional barriers have been imposed since 2023 in dealing with crypto. A handful of leading CEXs left the country, including Binance. Bittrex with an HIVE market, stopped its operations altogether. This doesn't leave too many options for off-boarding HIVE. By chance, I discovered MEXC supporting HIVE markets.
OKX and Dutch/European market
OKX decided to stay in the Dutch market. Though they started to impose KYC. Not an issue persé but needs time and effort to get it done. What surprised me though, was the fact that plenty of markets that were available to me before my KYC, suddenly disappeared after my KYC got approved. Only EURO and USDC markets are available to me. BTC, ETH and other markets are not allowed. Not sure if this is only for Dutch residents, or if this same applies to other EU and European members.
Perhaps you know?
Call2Action: Easy to find Resource Corner to support users
I realised quite some information is available in posts like this, as there are links to swap services available in e.g. PeakD user interface. But what I realised as well is that it isn't easy to find. Plenty of posts on our chain, but not always able to find the posts that can help our use case.
That said, am wondering how many HIVE users know how to search for posts. I mean, in the past we had an external service, called 'Hivesearcher'. But this service doesn't seem to be available anymore. Since I found the PeakD search user experience not the greatest, I started to use the search function in Ecency.
I wonder if we should set up an HIVE Wiki or something in which we group information on how to transfer funds from/to HIVE using a variety of DEXs and CEXs. A source that will describe a ton of use cases to get funds from A to B to C to Z. Perhaps even tailored to geographical areas and countries. For instance, USA and China residents aren't allowed to use MEXC. Binance isn't in the USA as well.
Does anybody have an idea how we can start grouping all this information so that we can support all existing and new HIVE members better?
Closing Thoughts
Blockchain ecosystems architectures with a layered approach, like Ethereum and BASEchain are still a big pain in the ass. Solutions for bridging and transferring funds are available in the market, but many of them need to be found by searching the big wide Internet and reading and digesting articles to figure out what is available and what may work for us. In my case, the unsupported CEXs with HIVE markets didn't help. No single article I was able to find for Dutch residents. I simply had to figure this out while I was in the process of moving funds over from the HIVE chain to the BASEchain. Being with HIVE and in crypto already for years; Being quite tech-savvy; It wasn't a huge problem for yours truly. Though the time I spent on all this was considerable.
But what about all those that are much less tech-savvy? And much less patient?
Whatever we do in our HIVE ecosystem. We must make the user experience simple and easy. We will see more layers added in our ecosystem. That is a given as far as I can tell. Whoever is in the business of connecting these chains to move funds, my call to those teams and service owners is to create flawless simple user experiences. Create easy-to-read documents describing the process, in steps, and maybe with screenshots... However I don't like the screenshot type of documents since it takes way too long to read. That said, the less tech-savvy and less experienced users may need such type of documentation. I dunno. But I do know this is to be considered. Perhaps the same information needs to be presented in different formats, a format for each type of user. I just know we need to provide flawless and simple user experiences to be able to grow, preferably exponentially.
Welcome to the Wonderful World of Crypto 😂
Just received the information I can get to some more IDO tokens in a few hours. Second round IDO, the leftovers from yesterday's round. In a minute I'll be going through the same process again, moving and converting HIVE on the HIVE chain into USDC on BASEchain. I suppose this time the process will be a bit quicker to execute for me, knowing the route, and having done all the necessary KYC and wallet verifications and whatnot. Wish me luck 🙃
an INLEO/HIVE original
all media by edje unless stated otherwise