Yes, there still is one.
It is about splitting up the main SteemIt webpage.
Graphical User interfaces {GUI}
Basically Steem is a system that can store and retrieve data. That data consists of Zeros and Ones, known in the computer realm as bits (On a deeper level the value of such a bit is usually stored as either above or below a designated level of electrical charge in a single capacitor within a memory device.°¹) And you thought this was going to be an easy read, right? Bear with me now, I just use this to explain to you how digital (zeros and ones) data is just a kind of noise to most humans. Computers love it though and can work wonders with it. So there is a barrier between the language of computers and the way we humans communicate. Just looking at these zeros and ones would be close to useless for us. It is some apparent random data that only makes sense for computers. We need to have some way of communicating with those computers to be able to make sense of any of its data.
This data can be stored, saved, in computer memory in a so called database system. And since Bitcoin {BTC} came into existence there is a new kind of database available: the blockchain. It is still data, but it gets accumulated into blocks. These blocks then get connected to each other with the use of a kind of checksum. Where the checksum of a new block of data is being calculated using the previous one. This is a complex mathematical calculation to ensure the chain of blocks is very strong. It is connected all the way back to the first block of data ever. In that way all the data stored in all of the blocks is secured. If there would be a rogue entity that wanted to manipulate some of the data, change some zeros into ones and the other way around, it would be very difficult to do so. Because that entity would need a lot of computing power to do all the needed calculations and have that accepted by all the computers in the network that also keep a full copy of the blockchain.
Yeah, okay, ain't that nice... But until now it is just about zeros and ones, random data to most observers. The data has to be put into formation, to make sense to most humans, to become understandable information. And the other way around is also important. When there is information that needs to be stored as data into the chain of blocks it will need to be transformed into zeros and ones. And that is where so called interfaces enter the game. It is able to transform data, like zeros and ones, into human understandable information. And it also works the other way around. Thanks to those interfaces humans and computers are able to communicate with each other. On a deeper level this is done using a so called API {Application Programming Interface}. But for most of us that is still way to complex to store and retrieve information using blockchain data. Lucky for us there are programmers that use an API and build a Graphical User Interface {GUI} on top.
Splitting up the interfaces
This can be an App {Application} on a smart device (mobile phone or tablet for instance}, but it can also be a website at a certain webaddress, known as a domain. Like https://steemit.com for instance, where you can find your own account page by adding /@accountname at the end. The SteemIt website is an interface to all the data on the Steem Blockchain, which is stored on many computers worldwide. What you can do with this website, just like the Esteem app or the https://Busy.org website is to store and retrieve information using the Steem Blockchain. Even if some of those Apps and Websites disappeared the Steem Blockchain would still exist and could be used using other (Graphical User) interfaces. Interfaces are ways to communicate with any computer that can store and return data. And Steem, the Blockchain, can store a lot of data inside its blocks, that are added every 3 seconds. Recently another application was created that makes it possible to create Tokens on the Steem Blockchain. And it has its own GUI to the Token data on the Steem blockchain, that is a website https://steemengine.com yet SteemIt dot com does not show these Tokens...
It is all about how the data is transformed into information. And how an interface is interacting with it. The website https://steemit.com was the first Graphical User Interface {GUI} to the data on the Steem Blockchain. And SteemIt its main interface purpose is to be a Social Media Platform that uses the Steem Blockchain for storing and retrieving its specific information. Actually anything could be stored and retrieved on the Steem Blockchain, as long as it is information that can be transformed from and to digital data. Where the Graphical User Interface will decide what its use is. Think about a game like Steem Monsters that also uses the Steem Blockchain. And one great thing about Steem is that one account gets you acces to all Applications {Apps} that are build on the Steem Blockchain. They all have one thing in common, besides the same shared account, and that is the Steem Token that is native to its blockchain. (SBD is merely a Steem Token derivative, so I leave it to be...)
You know the title is a bit misleading, but it might be something that could be experienced as such. Especially when SteemIt (dot com), the website (graphical user) interface, is being confused for Steem, the Blockchain, holding the actual digital data. Therefore when SteemIt is splitting up its Social Media Platform interface (the website on the main domain) in a community part and a wallet part than this is just about the same information, but now it now can be interacted with from a different page. The wallet interface part of SteemIt dot com will be on https://wallet.steemit.com/@accountname and the community part of the Social Media Platform will still be on its main domain like before https://steemit.com/@accountname it works the same like before. But for specific wallet related actions one would go to the wallet subdomain. This could be considered more secure when the wallet part and the community interface have been split up. The interaction with the Steem Blockchain is just the same. In the wallet one can do transactions, power-down and power-up, collect payouts and so forth and so one. While in the community part of the interface one can publish, reply, follow and curate. Just like before, but now using split up (webpage graphical user) interfaces each with a specific task.
Have a great one and Steem on!
PS There is also a separate domain that is the same as https://wallet.steemit.com it is https://steemitwallet.com.
It has its own domain too https://steemitwallet.com
Screenshot taken at https://steemitwallet.com
°¹ Text edit, a better definition of what bits are. Thanks to Ocrdu for the feedback. Original definition can be found at: https://sites.temple.edu/lizhe/2018/09/09/week-2-understanding-bits/