By now you should have heard "Not Your Keys, Not Your Crypto" This means that if you do not have the keys to location/wallet that contain your Crypto, it is not really your Crypto. You are relying on the integrity of the person that owns that wallet.
I like to keep my crypto in my wallet for which I have the keys. I have a paper copy of my keys and I thought that was good enough but it is not. And for a year now, this has worked perfectly.
Until now... You see, I folded that piece of paper. The fold just happen to be exactly in line with the posting key. So when you look at the posting key, there is a fold and some of the letters/numbers are not very clear.
Well, let me back up to why I need my keys to begin with. I use Actifit on my phone and there was a software update. Well, that update cleared all data from the app when it reloaded. It requires the posting key. I didn't worry about it because I was headed off to vacation and told myself that I would set it up later.
After I returned from vacation, I pulled up the app again and remember that I needed to add in my posting key. Well yesterday, I had the time so I got my copy of my keys out and started entering. It is a very long number so took me a while to enter it.
However after the third attempt of getting the error that I did not have the correct username or key, I started looking closer and some of the letters which were on the fold appeared very similar. Capital "B" looked like a Capital "D" and so on. That is when I started to worry because I did not know of anywhere to get a new copy of my keys.
After going through several of the front-ends that I use, I happened upon Hive Blog. I was clicking around and clicked on Wallet from the menu. To my surprised and relief, right on the menu is an item Labeled "Keys & Permissions"
I was so happy that I found this location that I realized there are probably others out there that may not know this is available.
The site also describes each of the different Hive keys and how they are used and why. It recommends to store an offline copy safely (on a piece of paper or on a file on a USD drive) Just a word of caution -- If you use a piece of paper, do not fold it where anyone of the Keys is right on the fold otherwise it may be very hard to read after a long time period.
For each of the keys is section where you can reveal your key with more information about that specific key. Well, I now have my posting key restored in my app and I am a lot more careful with my keys to ensure that will be readable for years to come. I have placed them in a plastic sleeve so they are safe and do not get anything spilled on them as well.
