SportsBlock Development Update — Building in Public 🏗️

It's been a busy week (and weekend) at SportsBlock HQ. We've been heads down making some significant changes to the platform and wanted to give the community a transparent look at what's been happening, what's coming this week, and where we're heading with MEDALS.

What We've Done — Auth System Overhaul

The biggest piece of work over the past week has been a major overhaul of our authentication and onboarding system. Hive account@blanchy has been burning the midnight oil on this one — we've moved away from using Aioha as our wallet connection library and built our own custom authentication model from the ground up.

Why? Because SportsBlock isn't just a frontend for existing Hive users — we're building a bridge for sports fans who've never touched crypto before. That means we need full control over the sign-up experience, from the moment someone clicks "Join" to the moment they're posting their first Sportsbite.

Our new system supports existing Hive wallet users through Keychain and HiveSigner — that hasn't changed. But on the other side, we're now building a Hive-native onboarding flow for newcomers. Instead of soft accounts that can't really interact with the blockchain, new users signing up through Google will receive a real Hive account from day one. Their keys are generated, encrypted, and managed securely so they can start posting and earning immediately — no crypto knowledge required.

A huge thanks to Hive account@niallon11 who's been instrumental on the technical side of this. Between his blockchain expertise and the 900+ Account Creation Tokens he holds, we've got serious runway to onboard new users without friction.

We're confident it's the right approach for bringing sports fans from Web2 into Web3.

Community Feedback — You Asked, We Listened

One of the things we're most proud of at SportsBlock is that we actually listen to our community. This past week, we received some brilliant feedback that's already shaping how the platform looks and feels.

Hive account@dalz made some excellent points about simplification. The platform needs to be cleaner, more intuitive, and less cluttered. He's absolutely right — when you're building fast, features can stack up and the user experience can suffer. We're taking that feedback seriously and stripping things back where it makes sense.

Hive account@zottone added to that by specifically pointing to the left navigation panel, suggesting we trim some elements to make it more streamlined. You asked, so we're doing it.

Hive account@bozz has been brilliant — not only with general feedback but specifically around the publishing page. He's been putting it through its paces and honestly, he's killing it with the quality of his input there. The publishing experience is one area we know we need to improve, and having someone like Hive account@bozz actively testing and feeding back on it is exactly what we need. That's going to be a focus area as we continue to refine the platform.

Thanks also to Hive account@talesfrmthecrypt for the great feedback. This kind of input from experienced Hive community members is invaluable when you're building a platform. We genuinely appreciate everyone taking the time to test things out and share their thoughts.

This Week's Focus

Hive account@blanchy isn't slowing down. Here's what's on the development roadmap for this week:

Bug Fixes — We're continuing to squash bugs across the platform. A solid, reliable experience is the foundation everything else is built on, and we won't move on until the core is stable.

Image Improvements — We're upgrading how images are handled across SportsBlock. Better display, better loading, better overall presentation for your posts and content.

User Experience Enhancements — Taking on board the feedback from Hive account@dalz, Hive account@zottone, and others, we're simplifying the interface. Cleaner navigation, less clutter, and a more intuitive flow for both new and existing users.

Publishing Page Improvements — Off the back of Hive account@bozz's feedback, we're making improvements to the publishing experience. This is a critical part of the platform — if writing and publishing a post isn't smooth, people won't come back. We're on it.

Match Thread Enhancements — Match Threads have been a hit since we launched them, and we're adding a couple of enhancements to make them even better. More on this soon.

Source

MEDALS Leaderboard — We're building a MEDALS leaderboard so the community can see who's earning, who's active, and how the token ecosystem is growing. Transparency and a bit of healthy competition never hurt anyone.

MEDALS Allocation — Getting It Right

Now, the big one everyone wants to know about — MEDALS curation and distribution.

Here's where we're at: right now, our priority is getting the website running smoothly. A platform that doesn't work properly isn't going to attract or retain users, and we owe it to the community to get the fundamentals right before we turn on the taps.

Hive account@niallon11 is holding the purse strings as we speak. Once we're happy with the site's stability and performance, we'll be writing scripts to track who has been posting on SportsBlock and who has been creating Sportsbites.

MEDALS will be curated and distributed based on a few simple community rules:

5% Beneficiary — Your post must include a 5% beneficiary to Hive account@sportsblock. This is how we fund ongoing development, curation power, and keep the lights on. It's a fair and transparent model that feeds directly back into the community.
Original Images — Images used in your posts must not be copyrighted. We're building a legitimate platform and respecting intellectual property is non-negotiable.
Quality Content — Your content needs to meet Hive community standards. That means no posts under 400 words, no AI-generated content, and content that's deemed adequate and original. We want real sports fans sharing real takes — that's what makes this community special.

It's straightforward. Play by the rules, contribute quality content, and you'll be rewarded. We're not interested in gaming or shortcuts — just genuine sports conversation earning genuine rewards.

Looking Ahead

We're building SportsBlock in the open because we believe in transparency. Every week brings new progress, and we're grateful for a community that's both patient and vocal about what they want to see.

If you haven't already, come check out sportsblock.app, make some Sportsbites, jump into a Match Thread, and let us know what you think. Your feedback is literally shaping the platform.

Thanks for being part of this. We're just getting started.

Hive account@blanchy | Hive account@niallon11 | Hive account@sportsblock

Follow us: @sportsblockinfo on X | Discord | hive-115814