Hey Lea,
Hope you're well. I wouldn't get too carried away just yet. There was a time (when I joined) when you could sign up for Steemit with just a Facebook account.
The issue isn't so much a technical one, rather one of cost. It costs money (in terms of resources) to create accounts ( that can perform actions ) on the STEEM or EOS blockchains. Allowing people to create accounts without a verification process opens the door to spam and abuse of the network.
Any 'Steemit 2.0' will need to overcome similar hurdles.
I'm not sure that the discovery that block.one had trademarked a social network application under the name 'meos' (a few months ago) and meos.com is using some kind of google authentication tool before it can be accessed properly tells us much at all!
I wouldn't be surprised if Dan/ block.one are working on something, I don't think they're giving away any clues just yet though.
Nanzo
Hey @nanzo-scoop! Thanks so much for your thoughtful reply. Getting different perspectives on this is exactly why I wanted to make this post - to start a conversation and hopefully learn a bit more about what's going on.
So interesting to hear that people used to be able to make Steem accounts with Facebook - crazy to think about now! It makes sense that perhaps this is a transitionary step while they test and get their own systems in place. Also great points about how a non-verified signup process would lead to immediate spam. I guess there really are no "shortcuts" to signing up for a blockchain based site that doesn't come up against some of the some issues we run into here on Steem.
Have a good day my friend! I hope you are doing well!