Introduction
One of the biggest complaints you will hear when someone is talking about using cryptocurrencies or blockchain products is that they’re complicated, or too hard for the user to understand. This is a very common theme across different cryptocurrency applications as they are typically built by existing crypto users, for already-existing crypto users and often requiring tech knowledge to use. More often than not, this results in the user experience being poor for even crypto natives, and much worse for brand new users.
Our vision for DeFi is to build a project with a heavy emphasis on user experience, much in a similar way to traditional finance applications. Something user-friendly, easy to understand, and simple enough for someone’s grandmother to use. We all hear different projects and founders talk about mass cryptocurrency adoption all the time, but until your mother can use it, there won’t be that kind of adoption. Everything from the core protocol to the frontend application is being built with usability in mind.
UX in blockchain today
When learning about a new crypto or blockchain ecosystem, it can be very intimidating, especially for brand-new users who don't have prior experience. Thinking about this from a standpoint of simplicity, we recognize that the signup or onboarding process for the majority of blockchains is just too complicated. Often forcing users to download a new wallet application, write down their seed phrase, and secure their private keys. Some even require additional steps to get started, which is already a pretty bad experience. Keep in mind, that this is just to get set up with a wallet before doing any actual transactions. Think of it like this - do you need to get a new driver’s license or passport every time you open a bank account? No. This experience is sub-par at best and is not sustainable for everyday users, much less the masses.
Once the user finally does get their new wallet application set up, they have to fund the wallet with whatever asset plus some additional assets for transaction fees. After all of this, they are finally ready to start using the new ecosystem, and if they have never had this sort of onboarding experience... They likely have preconceived notions about the overall experience of cryptocurrency, even though they haven't even had a chance to touch any of the applications. Often this process discourages users, especially in the case of Hive, because it's long and complex.
Account data visibility
Diving deeper into this, think about a brand new Ethereum user for a moment. Once they start making transactions, how do they even view their transaction history?
The majority of existing DeFi applications don’t provide any kind of transaction history, and if they do, it’s only what happened in that particular instance of being signed in. Taking that a step further, they typically don’t include a lot of crucial information and rely on redirecting users to other applications. So to look at their transactions, the user has no choice but to visit a 3rd party application such as Etherscan (Ethereum block explorer). Etherscan has its own set of issues in terms of usability and user-friendliness, so we'll just share an example for you. Here's a peak at a random Ethereum wallet on Etherscan.
This is peak auditability in the EVM ecosystem currently. Looks very user friendly doesn’t it? Definitely not!
Trying to determine where funds were sent, which wallet they were sent from, and what actually happened with a particular transaction is hard unless you're familiar. Looking at the screenshot above, you can easily see that the interface is very complex and doesn't provide any sort of guidance on what things mean. Wallet addresses are strings of random letters and numbers, transactions aren't clear, and the filtering is very hard to understand. What's really unfortunate is the fact that Etherscan is the best interface for transaction history that currently exists in the entire EVM space.
Moving on from the lack of transaction history in an easy-to-understand format, most of these platforms don't even have an onboarding flow. If you visit any of the most popular DeFi platforms out there, you'll find that there is no way to easily create an account and get started. Essentially, passing the burden of setting up a wallet on to the user via a completely separate website or app. In fact, these existing interfaces don't even point the user in the right direction to get set up. They assume that the user either already has a supported wallet, or knows how to set one up.
Looking at Uniswap, for example, you can see that there's no clear way to "sign up" and get started. You really only have the option to connect a wallet you already have or figure out how to create one on your own. This is not the sort of experience that we want our users to have. Our DeFi platform will provide everything the user needs to sign in and get started, even if they have never used a crypto platform before. Just imagine telling your mom to go to the above site and sign in. Odds are, she would land on the page, and immediately get confused by the interface. VSC aims to make DeFi easy enough for your average X or facebook user with a completely new approach.
Changing the experience
We're building a new DeFi experience from the ground up, starting with a simple thing that every platform in the crypto space should have: account data visibility. It is quite simple, but as we mentioned before, many DeFi applications lack any form of human-readable transaction history for the average user. The majority of existing DeFi platforms pass the burden of managing their account and transactions on to the user. Requiring your users to access their transaction history from an entirely separate website is the "norm", unfortunately. Even well-experienced crypto users can get confused with the number of different block explorers and wallets.
As you use the VSC DeFi platform, you will always have your transaction history available, regardless of which sign in method you use. To make it even better, you will be able to filter your transaction easily, and even get a summary of your activity on VSC. Did we mention that this will be on the exact same interface, and not a totally separate website? Transaction history on our DeFi platform will feel very familiar, even for users that have never used crypto before, because we are modelling our interface based on traditional banking applications.
Imagine a world where you sign in with your EVM wallet or social login that you use every day, then start trading instantly without buying assets to pay for transaction fees. This is the exact experience we are working on refining, and it will be a complete game changer for user-friendliness of crypto. VSC users will be able to do everything they need to on one single interface, such as swapping, providing liquidity, and even wrapping/unwrapping assets! Our dashboard will make your account overview super easy to understand, providing a chart that updates in real time as your assets fluctuate in value.
We're rolling everything into one DeFi "super app" that will enable anyone to interact with VSC in just a couple seconds. Regardless if you use an EVM wallet, a Hive wallet, or even a social login, you will have the exact same experience. Our DeFi platform takes the current user experience of getting started with crypto and makes it more friendly, faster, and much easier. Gone are the days of needing a different wallet for Hive assets and assets on other blockchains like Ethereum. We are heading fast toward a cross-chain future, and this is a giant step in that direction.
In terms of UX/UI, any user will be familiar with our DeFi platform as it will feel like their regular banking app or website. This opens the gates for all kinds of new users to seamlessly integrate our application into their daily financial lives. Our easy-to-use DeFi suite will bring new life into the Hive ecosystem and connecting existing users to the rest of the crypto world. No users will have to struggle to perform transactions, track where their funds went, or understand the interface on VSC. We will show the world how simple cryptocurrencies and DeFi can be when it's built with a user-first approach. We believe that even avid crypto users with a lot of experience in the space will be blown away when we show what's possible with our approach.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, mass adoption will only come when the world is able to start using crypto as if it were a regular banking application like PayPal. Until then, all we can do is keep building and changing the narrative of what crypto should look like.
In essence, using the VSC DeFi platform will require minimal knowledge of cryptocurrency or blockchain technology. It's designed to be accessible to everyone, regardless of their level of understanding or which wallet they use. We look forward to helping bring crypto and DeFi to the masses. The cross-chain future is bright and we don't plan on being left behind.
We can't wait for you to be able to use all the cool things we are building within the VSC Network and rest assured that your feedback from your experience is extremely valuable to our team. Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the current state of DeFi user experience.. How was your experience getting started with crypto and what is the best onboarding experience you've ever had in the industry? See you in the next one and we look forward to hearing your thoughts.