Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog, hope you’re having an awesome day. So for today, I’ll be going straight to my task for the week on the #Newbieinitiative.
The first time I had to create an account on the Hive blockchain, I was given some sets of keys, I was confused, the person who onboarded me had to explain to me that they were more like passwords that I needed to access my account on Hive, although I was still a bit confused but during one the meetings held for newbies courtesy of the Newbie Initiative, I got more clarity and understanding of the various functions and uses of the keys.
Our keys are our passwords as we have on other social media platforms. On Hive, protecting your keys is very important, as we have our digital assets we work for in our accounts.
Our keys should be very personal, not what we can share with anyone else, more like the way you don’t share your toothbrushes and other personal stuff with others, do not also share your keys with others.
Highlight the steps involved in changing the trustee accounts (recovery accounts) to your hive account.
Steps Involved in Changing the Trustee or Recovery Account.
When an account is created on Hive, a trustee account or recovery account is assigned to you, this account is the account that you can use to recover your account if there is an issue with your account, or if your account is being hacked.
- Locate the account actions on your profile that is represented by three dots on your profile. Click on it, some options will appear, search for the option that says keys and permissions.
- Once you select the keys and permissions, a set of options that includes the recovery account will be displayed. Click on the recovery account and you will see your trustee account displayed just at the bottom.
- There’s also an option to change your recovery account just beneath the displayed recovery account. When it’s clicked on, there's a space for you to input your new recovery account and also your owners key, easy peasy lemon squeezy right? That’s all you need to do to change your recovery account to an account that is easily accessible by you in case of any unfortunate event.
If you invited someone to the Hive blockchain and had to give them a proper explanation of the function of each key, write out what your explanation will look like for each key.
Like I said earlier, once you create an account on the Hive blockchain, a set of keys are created specifically for you, just imagine the scenario of you renting an apartment, and a set of keys that unlock different parts of the apartment is given to you, this is exactly what happens on Hive.
So the set of keys given to an account holder at the point of creation is divided into 5, we have the Master key, Owner key, Active key, Posting key, and the Memo key.
Master Key
This key as the name implies is the master of all other keys and can do so many things, it can be used to recover any corrupt key, for recovery of an account, or to generate old keys.
Owner Key
This key as the name implies “owner” can be used to recover your account or change other keys in case of any fishy or funny activity.
Active Key
This key right here is used for the numerous financial transactions that are carried out on the Hive block chain for instance transferring Hive or HBD to another account, you need this key, to also make withdrawals, vote, and also to power up, This key should be guarded judiciously as it involves your rewards and financial transactions.
Posting key
The posting key is required for the social activities carried out on the blockchain like posting, commenting, replying, and voting. It is not required for any financial or monetary purpose, so if someone gets a hold of this key, they can't access your funds, and it means you are safe.
Memo Key
Looking for how to encrypt or decrypt (more like conceal or decode) messages on the blockchain, this memo key is what you need for this particular function.
Peradventure, your account Active Key got exposed to the general public. What are the measures you'll take to safeguard your assets and account going forward?
Well if my Active got exposed, I would find a way to transfer all of my earnings to someone I know and can trust, or the person that onboarded me on Hive, as anyone with my active key could access my funds. After I have done that, I would then proceed to reset my active key using my owner key to be able to proactively curtail the situation. I would also get in contact with my trustee account in order to recover my account before any damage is done.
The measures I'll take to safeguard my assets going forward is to consciously protect my keys, and ensure no one has access to them, I could do that by storing them in an encrypted PDF format, writing them out in my journal in an encrypted form that only I will be able to understand.
I want to use this opportunity to say a very big thank you to the organizers of the #newbieinitiative, you guys are doing an awesome job. To @vickoly thank you for the session on Sunday, it was really enlightening.
This is my submission for the task 3 for the #newbieinitiative.
Thanks for stopping by🥰
All images are mine except otherwise stated.